▲ 287 points
back
263 comments
This makes no sense to me. This highly unlikely to be a political move. Science education is not political in India. Evolution, abortion, chemistry are not debated at all.
This is more likely for the reasons to be innocuous.
> In explaining its changes, NCERT states on its website that it considered whether content overlapped with similar content covered elsewhere, the difficulty of the content, and whether the content was irrelevant. It also aims to provide opportunities for experiential learning and creativity.
> NCERT announced the cuts last year, saying that they would ease pressures on students studying online during the COVID-19 pandemic. Amitabh Joshi, an evolutionary biologist at Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research in Bengaluru, India, says that science teachers and researchers expected that the content would be reinstated once students returned to classrooms. Instead, the NCERT shocked everyone by printing textbooks for the new academic year with a statement that the changes will remain for the next two academic years, in line with India’s revised education policy approved by government in July 2020.
Sounds more like students have continued lagging behind after coming back from Covid, than anything malicious. I have literally never heard of national politicians in India being anti-science.
I might be wrong, but I would genuinely like to see 1st source statements from the board indicating that these changes are religiously motivated.
I have no idea exactly how much this particular curriculum change is influenced by religion. But your assertion that science is depoliticized in India is very wrong.
In 2018, the education minister declared Darwin was wrong. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/23/indian-educati...
This is just one of many such troubling incidents, including apparent indifference to the murder of pro-rationalism academics.
Anecdotally, if you have people from India in your life, this is inescapable. Constant barrage of forwards on WhatsApp of Hindu supremacy, which necessarily have to flip history upside down. The story goes that Hindus had nuclear energy 10,000 years ago, but filthy foreigners corrupted Mother India.
> I have literally never heard of national politicians in India being anti-science.
Not anti-science per se but Indian politicians are quite famous for pseudo-scientific nonsensical statements like Mr Modi claiming that advanced surgery existed thousands of years ago when doctors sewed an Elephant's head to a God's body[1] and then claiming presence of test tube babies in ancient times[3]
On the other hand, Union Health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan claimed that Vedas had knowledge beyond Theory of Relativity[3]
BJP, the ruling party has tried to indoctrinate a bunch of nonsense like Wright brothers did not invent the airplane, it was infact ancient Indians[4].
[1]: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/28/indian-prime-m... [2]: https://theprint.in/science/vedic-plastic-surgery-to-test-tu... [3]: https://www.indiatoday.in/fyi/story/science-minister-harsh-v... [4]: https://theprint.in/india/governance/in-engineering-courses-...
Ah, you are not reading the situation right. The fascist elements have hijacked the term "science". Nowadays, it is science if you say that cowling protects against atomic radiation ([1]) or you say that ancient India had interplanetary travel ([2]) .. note that the latter was at an official track at the Indian Science Congress on science in ancient India. If the vedas said something, that is science. If the white man brought out a periodic table, either ban it, or say 'our ancient texts already knew about it'. That's the state of India right now.
You will never see any statements by the board. They are comprised of people who are either scared shitless of speaking out, or who are really religious fundamentalists at core.
[1] https://www.outlookindia.com/national/cow-dung-protects-from...
[2] https://www.businesstoday.in/latest/economy-politics/story/i...
As with a lot of India news appearing here of late, take this with a pound of salt. Like you were saying, this makes no sense as a political move. Hinduism (and by extension Hindutva, the problematic political form) has no bone to pick with Darwin and evolution. Actually the opposite is true - it's likely to be promoted because evolution is a point of contention in Abrahamic religions. The Indian far-right promotes a lot of fabrications; this isn't one of them though.
The two academics quoted in the article come from JNU, which is known for its left/far-left leaning. Looking through their social media, I see retweets of: US stealing Syria's oil, opposition to bombing Syria and aiding Ukraine, etc. What does it say about the author of the story, if she can't see through biases? It's kinda disappointing that balanced opinions are becoming rare in news media.
My hunch is it's probably NEP related.
They are trying to do away with School Leaving Certificates at Grade 10, which means you can spread out curriculum across 12 years.
https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/class-10-syllabus-change-now...
and of course
https://twitter.com/ncert/status/1664321985709744128
Fake news. These topics are covered in the relevant (Science) stream in class 12 now. This is simply rationalization of the subjects to reduce burden on the students.
On a related note, I see quite a bit of fake news posted here...
I agrée, I also did not have that impression from what I could tell. This is really bad.
All talk about demographic dividends and such are moot when such stupidity is ushered in and allowed to prevail. They may be squandering a real opportunity here.
This is the same country that tried to derail the building of a shipping channel because it would have destroyed a bridge built by a monkey army, also known as limestone shoal.
https://content.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1663025,0...
Why would they risk saying its religious motivated at this point. Make the changes small, let the effects trickle in over a decade.
India has been getting high on its own supply for a few years now. The narrative is that all knowledge originated in ancient Indian texts and was stolen by the west. Even the ISRO chief made a comment in this vein a few days back.
Cultures that keep looking at imagined past glories, imo, are destined to become static and falter.
Reading the source that Nature cites, it seems like the content has been made temporarily unexaminable ‘in light of COVID’, rather than the section actually getting cut from the textbook.
https://ncert.nic.in/rationalised-content.php
Could any Indian with a new physical textbook perhaps confirm? It’s a rather concerning policy.
The headline also seems awfully clickbaity. What the policy seems to have done is shifted basic evolution down to younger grades and moved the more advanced concepts to more senior grades. However, this shifts more advanced concepts up to grades in which science as a subject is not compulsory. Regressive as this is, this isn’t what the headline suggests.
It's only affecting 10th grade CBSE (NCERT), not ICSE or state board* exams, let alone competitive board exams like the JEE (Engineering) or NEET (Medicine).
It's still being taught in the NCERT books as well, but now in 12th grade instead of 10th grade.
The scarier thing should be the rewriting of the history section of CBSE.
* board is Indian English for curriculum
Also, on the hierarchy of Indian board exams:
Top - ICSE
Medium - some State Boards
Low - CBSE, some state boards
Board exams are orthogonal to college entrance exams in India.
For example, IIT and Engineering admissions are gated by the JEE, so students oftentimes bunk 10th-12th grade to study the JEE and try to get a D average in the Board exam (because there's only so much you can study).
Board exams do have value though for most average colleges though and some top tier non-Eng ones (eg. If I wanted to study Law at St Stephen's College, University of Delhi or Business at Shri Ram College of Commerce, University of Delhi - both programs that feed into the political and business elite of India).
The Indian system is confusing and weird and there is some reform within it to become much more similar to the American system, but that's a work in progress.
Kinda wild to see comments on here saying that India's slide into religious fascism isn't a big deal.
"We/Indians don't politicize science"
"There are many education authorities"
I think this is only affecting a particular grade, but we already have seen the slow rollout of other efforts.
You can't normalize politicians saying stuff like "our ancient civilization had nuclear energy".
edit: surprised that I wasn't immediately downvoted. A year ago, talking about this was instant downvotes, on any platform. I guess enough people have noticed this behavior.
This news seems misleading. A charitable reading of the article would assign it a category of "clickbait". The periodic table and evolution are still part of high school curriculum.
Here are the links to the class XI textbook for Chemistry (the so called rationalized text books for 2023-24).
Chemistry Part I, Unit 3, Classification of Elements and Periodicity in Properties. (Link to PDF) https://ncert.nic.in/textbook.php?kech1=3-6
in pg 77, Mendeleev's original periodic table
in pg 79, Long form of the periodic table (modern periodic table)
Biology, Chapter 6, Evolution. (link to PDF) https://ncert.nic.in/textbook.php?lebo1=6-13
6.1 Origin of Life
6.2 Evolution of Life Forms - A Theory
6.3 What are the Evidences for Evolution?
6.4 What is Adaptive Radiation?
6.5 Biological Evolution
6.6 Mechanism of Evolution
6.7 Hardy - Weinberg Principle
6.8 A Brief Account of Evolution
6.9 Origin and Evolution of Man
> Nature has learnt that the periodic table, as well as evolution, won’t be taught to under-16s as they start the new school year.
Yeah, duh! It is taught in Class XI and XII in Chemistry and Biology, just not in Class IX or X as it used to be done previously. Weaving this as some major conspiracy is dishonest and ridiculous.
For the benefit of US readers: Class IX is freshman high school year, Class X is sophomore year, Class XI is junior year, Class XII is senior year.
I found it really beneficial to be exposed to these concepts at a very young age, giving me a lot of exposure over many years and helping inform my overall view of science and the world as I grew up. I had a particularly keen interest in evolution starting with a visit to the Museum of Natural History in NYC at age 6! My mother bought my friend and I pamphlets on evolution (my mother had to clear it with his parents before giving it to him) and it became on ongoing fascination for me for many years.
I know little-to-nothing about elementary education in India, but I always appreciated the broad-based approach to education I experienced in the US, with various concept introduced very early, and then re-introduced periodically over the years. If anything, I would support throwing more knowledge at young students, knowing that they'll only absorb a fraction of it. Though I suppose that approach is anathema to standardized testing.
I don't think this is political or some other non-educational agenda driven. No politician in India has ever thought of education curriculum as part of their vote bank political thinking nor will they take the effort needed go interfere in the academic processes that result in these textbooks.
Anyway, it really doesn't matter if some of these topics are removed from these specific textbooks because most science students who are aspiring to go for engineering or medical undergrad college will study those topics as part of preparations for college entrance exams. Stuff like evolution, environmental pollution and periodic tables will be studied by even those who are applying for Indian civil service exams.
Also, there is no danger of creationism taking hold in India just because evolution is not taught in high school. Also, religious beliefs in India are very diverse and rich and highly complicated that nobody who is inclined to learn sciences will confuse religious beliefs and mythological stories with practical sciences.
Edit: btw, all textbooks are available for free download here: https://ncert.nic.in/textbook.php You can evaluate for yourself and make your own mind. I for one envy students of today with all the rich multimedia material at their fingertips especially to learn formal and natural sciences.
"chapters on democracy and diversity; political parties; and challenges to democracy have been scrapped" this is even more dangerous.
Cutting and defunding education seems such a prevalent global trend, I find it hard to believe there is no hidden agenda.
At least here it seems to happen with the clear political agenda. Who needs evolution and democracy anyways other than those inconvenient to the indian government.
What a deceptive headline. They cut these things from general science courses (what Americans would consider K-8), but they are still part of "high school" biology.
Why would you cut the periodic table from curriculum? I'm a chem major and have never heard of such a thing before.
They actually cut the syllabus for students below class X. It's not a ban or anything. And it's only NCERT's (central board of education) syllabus. Each state has its own education board and syllabus. The headline is not honest.
Teachers will still be teaching (and this is probably what NCERT expects) these basic topics, because teaching the topics that remain won't be easy without them.
My sibling was in grade 10 when COVID hit, some topics that had been removed from the final exam were still taught (although in a somewhat brief manner, considering this was online schooling).
Indian politicians say a lot of dumb and pseudo-scientific garbage, but a few subpar comments here are wildly quoting those to act as if they're rewriting all of science in India. They've purely made omissions, no additions/revisions.
And evolution is still a chapter in grade 12 biology books- https://ncert.nic.in/textbook.php?lebo1=6-13
You can also find the periodic table in grade 9 science textbooks (page 6)- https://ncert.nic.in/textbook.php?kech1=3-6
Are these changes to school textbooks politically/religiously motivated? Debatable.
Do these changes de-emphasize science education or merely reorganize it? Also debatable.
Are these debates fairly represented by this nature.com article in a balanced way? NOT AT ALL.
The bigger story here is the decline in credibility suffered by nature.com due to its publication of such an unbalanced article.
nature.com used to be one of the gold standard for scientific publications. When they publish garbage like this, more people start to lean "anti-science".
I'm calling shenanigans.
There are many education systems in India. There's a central one, but each state has its own.
Indians at every economic level (except maybe the very top) value STEM education above everything else.
I wish we'd learn to dial back the hysteria. I wish people weren't so damn trigger happy.
Is education free in India ? I believe it is.
With that said, seems India is mirroring the US in making sure only the wealthy will get a good education (private schools).
It is a dangerous game doing that, eventually the mass will rise up once they realize their children have no hope in succeeding.
Speaking of the periodic table. I learned during Covid that my fourth grader could memorize the entire thing when I practiced the song with her :)
Does anyone else get the feeling that the "great filter" to our continued global civilization advance is how you manage, after reaching a certain size, the millions of competing motivations and concerns that branch out and cause confusion when there are no longer just a few clear problems to solve?
I’m not too familiar with Indian education systems. Does anyone have an idea if and how this would affect future JEE exams? I’m specifically referring to the removal of the periodic table for students under 16 years old.
Also, maybe I missed it, but what’s the point of _removing_ the chapters instead of just not _teaching_ them?
Right; we wouldn't want the next generation of one of the most populous nations, that is at a more imminent and grave risk from global warming than most others, to have a science background?
It's like some secret plot perpetrated by an external enemy who aims to eradicate the nation.
Understanding that atoms are the foundation of matter and evolutionary adaptation are fundamental to life goes directly against any religion that purports alternate explanations. There is nothing innocuous about this, it is a theocratic censure.
India is a country of contradictions. My mom was a bio teacher, and obviously believes in the concept of evolution. But she's also spiritual and religious, and believes in creationist theories. She is somehow able to juxtapose both into creating a meaningful "story".
Id encourage non-Indians to read up about India to have the cultural context we grow up in
I scanned the whole article but could not find any mention of the reason behind this move. I mean evolution may be violating some Hindu teaching but what is the problem with periodic table of elements?
There is a lot of pressure by Churches especially in the South of India not to teach evolution. And from other religions.
Prepping the serfs for war with China
This is not what the title makes it to seem, most of India believes science and education leads to success in life and for the country. If anything businesses will now make more money by teaching periodic tables and evolution in "coaching classes"
Don't let facts stand in your way to senseless propaganda. The textbooks are all available online.
Periodic table: https://ncert.nic.in/textbook.php?kech1=3-6
Evolution: https://ncert.nic.in/textbook.php?lebo1=6-13
http://www.indiatodayne.in/national/story/ncert-syllabus-row...
TLDR: Nature and most other western publications failed to do basic fact check, neither periodic table or evolution are 'cut' from textbooks. They're just moved to a different grade.
The only way I can see this making rational sense is if the senior leaders in the government are in possession of secret, solid evidence that population growth is about to become lethal in the extreme, and this is a radical move by the government to precipitate their own depopulation through mass starvation.
But I seriously doubt that's the case and the mechanism of action seems weak.
Now just imagine the next generation of Java developers who will come out of the country.
Bloodywood - Gaddar
Good. Lot of crap needs to removed from 11 and 12 classes too. CBSE / NCERT is bloated.
India is the new Texas.
Wow. I'd consider this grounds for a riot-level protest in the street.
Title is clickbait