Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister for Education, tried to diffuse fears around the 'deletion' of Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution from the NCERT textbooks, saying that "nothing of this sort has happened”, as stated in a report by PTI.
Pradhan made this statement while speaking at an event at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Maharashtra's Pune city on Tuesday, June 20.
The minister said, "A controversy is going on these days that Darwin's theory of evolution has been removed from science books by the NCERT and the periodic table has been left out, but I would like to state here publicly that nothing of this sort has happened."
The minister said that after the controversy broke out, he spoke to the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), which is an autonomous body, and sought details.
He revealed that experts had advised that redundant parts from some syllabi could be reduced and later brought back after COVID-19 hence, the content for Classes VIII and IX is unchanged.
“In the book of Class X, some portion related to the theory of evolution was omitted last year, and it is unchanged in Classes XI and XII," he said.
The minister agreed that critics who claimed that students who would not study Science after Class X would miss out on some specific subjects related to Darwin's theory of evolution made a valid point.
"The Periodic Table is taught in Class IX and is also being taught in Classes XI and XII. As per the NCERT, one or two examples (related to the theory of evolution) were omitted,” he reconfirmed.
He further assured that the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is now being implemented and the NCERT is preparing new textbooks as per the same.
