NEW DELHI: The NCERT’s decision to drop the theory of biological evolution from the science syllabus in the Class X curriculum of the CBSE has raised concerns among scientists, science teachers and educators. The scientific community feels that depriving the students of exposure to this fundamental discovery of science will seriously handicap their thought process.
The academics said removing the chapter from textbooks would deprive the students from understanding the process of evolution which is “crucial in building a scientific temper”, adding that it is a “travesty of education”.
In an open letter titled ‘An Appeal Against Exclusion of Evolution from Curriculum’, Breakthrough Science Society, a nationwide voluntary organisation committed to the cause of science, culture and scientific outlook, has demanded that the theory of Darwinian evolution be restored in secondary education.
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The letter is signed by over 1,800 scientists, science teachers and educators. These include scientists from institutions of repute such as Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) and IITs.
“Knowledge and understanding of evolutionary biology is important not just to any sub-field of biology, but is also key to understanding the world around us. Evolutionary biology is an area of science with a huge impact on how we choose to deal with an array of problems we face as societies and nations from medicine and drug discovery, epidemiology, ecology and environment, to psychology, and it also addresses our understanding of humans and their place in the tapestry of life. Although many of us do not explicitly realise, the principles of natural selection help us understand how any pandemic progresses or why certain species go extinct, among many other critical issues,” states the letter.
According to a document from the NCERT, the chapter on evolution was removed from the rationalised content in the textbook for Class 10. The chapter, earlier titled ‘Heredity and Evolution’, is now called ‘Heredity’.
The list of dropped topics in this chapter includes Charles Darwin, origin of life on Earth, molecular phylogeny, evolution, and tracing evolutionary relationships.
