TIL that India cut the Pythagorean theorem—Edit: its similarity proof—, periodic table, and evolution from mandatory education in June 2023 Edit: before adding it back a week later
Crucial science topics will no longer be taught to a large swath of Indian students, according to new government guidance.
In a statement, the council rationalized the reduction by stating they wanted to reduce the content load on students in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. On June 1, India cut a slew of foundational topics from tenth grade textbooks, including the periodic table of elements, Darwin's theory of evolution, the Pythagorean theorem, sources of energy, sustainable management of natural resources and contribution of agriculture to the national economy, among others. These changes effectively block a major swath of Indian students from exposure to evolution through textbooks, because tenth grade is the last year mandatory science classes are offered in Indian schools.
They haven't removed the Pythagorean theorem, it seems to be taught in lower grades. This is Pythagorean theorem for the similarity of triangles, which was dropped to remove burden during pandemic.
Periodic tables and evolution are moved to one or two grade higher. NOT DROPPED.
There you go. Now you have the facts.
Enjoy the rest of your day 🫡
The syllabus includes of related topics way before in 6th or 7th grade. Some of them are often repeated (may be even intentionally). They learn about elements and their composition in 7th or 8th grade. After having all that, if student is inclined to it they learn more in 11th and 12th grades. Most of students follow up to 12th in India. If you are so concerned go check the textbooks yourself - https://ncert.nic.in/textbook.php
Although I don’t suppose most people won’t do that because why put the effort to understand things when you can spew dumb opinions around ?
The reason the topics were rationalised to improve remote learning and reduce burden on students during exams in a country where suicide rates among students due to exams and societal pressures is a real concern.
The way people have been reacting to this is as if students coming out of school are dumb fucks with no scientific knowledge. I bet the ones commenting here doesn’t even know half of what those students know.
What secondary sources do you propose we trust? Deutsche-Welle has a reputation for fact-checking and retractions. What's your source that students who don't major in math or biology will learn these?
that's because you didn't even take the effort to read even the index pages. You want to believe what you are already believing. Stop trying to act like you care.
10th grade is mandatory but 90% of students who studied till 10th WILL study 11th and 12th. In 10th grade they WILL learn pythagoras theorem periodic table and evolution, just not as deep into it as it used to.
Correct. After 10th grade, you can choose a "stream" (course). You can choose between science, commerce, or humanities. What's worse is that each stream has multiple branches, and biology is not included in all the branches. So if you were to choose computer science branch in the science stream, you will not take any biology classes.
So a vast majority of students would never learn about some very important scientific concepts if this was implemented, but I'm not sure if they reversed this decision or not.
These changes effectively block a major swath of Indian students from exposure to evolution through textbooks, because tenth grade is the last year mandatory science classes are offered in Indian schools.
I know nothing of India's education system. Does this mean it's in an optional class now or is this totally wrong?
Except this comment seems to leave out that mandatory science education stops in India at 10th grade, so the periodic table and evolution will not be taught to Indian students unless they pursue higher grades of education.
Edit: It appears all of this is also moot, since a comment below pointed out that these things have been added back into the curriculum: