CBSE syllabus omissions reflect RSS' narrow, partisan agenda: SIO

NEW DELHI: The Students Islamic Organisation (SIO) viewed the Central Board of Secondary Education’s move to drop “vital subjects” such as “Democracy and Diversity” from CBSE syllabus 2022-23 as “narrow, partisan and ideological agenda of RSS” and said that the board’s decision of omitting syllabus doesn’t make any sense on academic grounds. Recently, CBSE dropped chapters on Mughals, cold war, Urdu poem verses of Faiz along with others from the 2022-23 syllabus.

“The dangers of injecting the poison of hatred and division in children's education cannot be overstated, and must be a matter of concern for us all,” said SIO in an official statement.

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“The skewed view of education and society that was evident in the National Education Policy (NEP) continues to wreak havoc in the educational landscape. The continuous sabotage of textbooks and curricula is death knell for the idea of inclusive, holistic and transformational education. This shift towards an authoritarian and ethnic republic is also reflected by omission of civic subjects and chapters on socio-cultural heritage of Islam and other traditions,” the statement from Fawaz Shaheeh, National Secretary, SIO added.

CBSE syllabus 2022-23

CBSE dropped a chapter titled ‘The Mughal Court: Reconstructing Histories through Chronicles’ from the Class 12 history syllabus, and chapters on the Cold War era and the non–aligned movement, social and new social movements in India from the Class 12 political science syllabus. “Democracy and diversity,” a chapter from the Class 10 NCERT book, which deals with social divisions and inequalities on the basis of race and caste across India and the world, was also dropped from the CBSE new syllabus.

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The translated excerpts from two poems by Faiz Ahmed Faiz in Urdu language under the “Religion, Communalism and Politics — Communalism, Secular State” section have also been removed from the CBSE 10th syllabus 2022-23. Topics of "impact of globalization on agriculture” from a chapter on 'Food Security' too have been dropped by the board.

Earlier today, Congress member Rahul Gandhi called the CBSE board as “Central Board of Suppressing Education” and “Rashtriya Shiksha Shredder” for shredding certain chapters and content from the CBSE Syllabus 2022-23.