Sonam Kapoor slams the CBSE for cutting topic like secularism, nationalism, federalism, demonetisation, GST, India’s foreign relations with neighbouring countries and citizenship… Calls it “bizarre”!!!

Actor Sonam Kapoor who made news with her recent ‘karma’ statement, has questioned the Central Board for Secondary Education’s recent decision to remove chapters based on secularism, nationalism, citizenship, democracy and other topics. Sonam called the move ‘bizarre’ in an Instagram post. “This is bizarre. Some of the most important topics are being left out. How are young minds supposed to form political opinions?,” she wrote. Sonam also shared a news article on the same with her post. The CBSE’s move is to ‘rationalise’ its syllabus by dropping certain chapters to reduce course load on students in the view of the Covid-19 pandemic. Chapters on secularism, nationalism, federalism, demonetisation, GST, India’s foreign relations with neighbouring countries and citizenship among others, have been dropped. The HRD Ministry maintained that the curriculum has been rationalised while retaining core elements.

Other political leaders have also expressed their disappointment at the move. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee appealed to HRD ministry not to curtail important lessons at any cost. CBSE secretary Anurag Tripathi said addressed the controversy, saying, “The reduction of syllabus from classes 9 to 12 has been interpreted differently. Contrary to some of the impressions being created, it is clarified that the rationalization of syllabus up to 30 per cent has been undertaken for nearly 190 subjects for the academic session 2020-21 as a one-time measure only.”