Sir — It is a proud moment for India that the chief minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, has been invited to speak at the Oxford Union debate, 2021. She is the first Indian woman leader and the third woman leader in the world to receive the honour. Banerjee’s speech is supposed to be followed by an interactive session with youths from across the world. This is interesting, as she had herself begun her political career as a student leader. Projects started by her such as the Kanyashree, Khadya Sathi and Sabooj Sathi have received widespread appreciation. Her presence at Oxford will gain Bengal recognition far and wide.

Khokan Das

Calcutta

Stressful situation

Sir — The Central government seems to be conspiring against its own people, calculating its own political gain, even as the country is suffering from a life-threatening pandemic and its effects. Students, in particular, are suffering like never before. They are having to adjust to the new model of online education, which makes learning science subjects especially difficult. However, instead of thinking about the students, the government is busy looking for ways to manipulate the situation in its favour. This is evident from the way in which the Central Board of Secondary Examinations has planned to restructure the curriculum (“Mind war”, July 10).

At least two things should have been kept in mind. First is the possibility that the batch of board examinees registered for the 2020-2021 examinations might not be able to go to school throughout the session. Then, if chapters needed to be excluded from assessment, the omission should have been done on the basis of their significance in developing the minds of students with regard to social and political issues rather than their ability to fetch more marks. As such, portions on economic policies — demonetization is among them — or democracy and secularism — the latter are essential to the identity of every Indian — should not have been removed. The youth, being the future of the country, must understand these concepts clearly.

During a crisis, the authorities are expected to work efficiently and honestly, so that the students are relieved of stress but not in a way that deprives them of valuable lessons. Instead, they are getting caught in the ruling party’s strategy of spreading its own ideology. Clearly, the ruling dispensation does not want the nation’s youth to know about its mistakes.

The CBSE should rethink its decision. The next generation must be kept away from the narrowness of partisan politics. However, if the students cannot learn these crucial lessons from the school curriculum, then it befalls the guardians to compensate for the loss.

Swati Goswami Bose

Calcutta

Sir — Keeping the lockdown in mind, the CBSE has decided to chop off some important topics from the school syllabus — students will not be marked on these. But this policy is now being criticized. Educationists have been stupefied by the fact that subjects of great significance, such as democratic rights, federalism, gender, religion and caste, are being discarded.

Officials of the CBSE said that the decision has been taken after consulting experts in the field. But, this blanket ban on the first three chapters of the syllabi is not acceptable. Many educationists are of the opinion that this is an advertent move on the part of the human resource development ministry. The trimming should have been based on the importance of the topics instead of the sequence in which they appear. In the absence of these chapters, the entire learning process of students will be disturbed.

Aditya Ghosh

Berhampore

Sir — The omission of chapters on federalism, secularism and citizenship, topics that uphold the constitutional values of India, from assessment by using the pandemic as an excuse is a crude joke on the idea of democracy that the nation celebrates. That an autonomous body like the CBSE would surrender its neutrality to the ruling dispensation like this is condemnable. This is an attack on the ideas of pluralism and diversity. The removal of the chapter on Partition indicates the saffron brigade’s attempt to delete from India’s history the fact that the country remained secular even at that point.

Reducing the workload of students would have been a welcome move had it encouraged diverse streams of thought. A textbook is more than an assemblage of facts to be memorized. It can serve to connect our pedagogical systems with our lived realities. It is time to evolve teaching methods that encourage students to seek knowledge from books in a way that would help them apply the lessons in reality.

S.S. Paul

Nadia

Sir — The decision of the CBSE to cut down the syllabus by 30 per cent would certainly be a relief for the students from the point of view of examinations. But, in reality, it is a huge loss for them. Removing important topics from assessments could mean that the student would possibly pass out with no knowledge of them. Rather than reducing the syllabus, the authorities concerned should reimagine the modes and methods of evaluation. There should be a greater focus on imparting knowledge than on evaluation on the basis of marks.

Chandan Kumar Nath

Barpeta, Assam