India (Common Wealth)_The periodic table of elements and Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution have been removed from some school textbooks in India as part of a larger push by the Hindu nationalist administration over the effect on teaching and the crucial tech sector of the nation. In a petition, more than 4,500 scientists, teachers, and other people expressed their “disagreement with such dangerous changes in school science education and demand to restore the theory of Darwinian evolution in secondary education” to textbooks for grade 10. Academics have expressed outrage about changes made to school textbooks since Narendra Modi’s government took office in 2014. These changes include removing chapters on India’s centuries-long past under Muslim Mughal rule.
In 2017, Turkey removed the study of evolution from its school textbooks. Among other modifications, India has removed the chapters on “democracy and diversity” and “challenges to democracy” from grade 10 courses. Science educators have cautioned that the most recent action may jeopardize the sizeable and fiercely competitive research and information technology sector, which significantly contributes to the economy of the nation with the largest population.
Sule stated that although evolution would still be taught in grades 11 and 12, many Indian students opted not to continue their studies in science or math past the tenth grade. The curriculum was streamlined in response to the Covid-19 outbreak to lessen the strain on students and instructors who were teaching classes online. It was impossible to reach NCERT or the Indian minister of education for comment. The curriculum revision was a “need-based exercise aimed at reducing the content load, keeping in mind the students’ mental health during the Covid pandemic and its aftermath,” according to a statement released this week by NCERT.
It stated that the new textbooks were only intended to be a temporary fix for the current 2023–24 academic year. However, science educators expressed concern that the modifications might be ingrained permanently in Indian education. The claim that it is only transient raises questions in Vineeta Bal’s mind, an emeritus professor at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research in Pune. The theory of evolution was criticized as “scientifically wrong” in 2018 by Satyapal Singh, then-India’s minister of state for human resource development, who also asked for its omission from school and college curricula.
