‘Propaganda’: Minister defends removal of Darwin’s theory of evolution from school textbooks

The NCERT had announced last year that the chapter ‘Heredity and Evolution’ will be replaced with ‘Heredity’ in the Class 10 science book.

Apr 30, 2023 - 16:30

‘Propaganda’: Minister defends removal of Darwin’s theory of evolution from school textbooks

Union Minister of State for Education Subhas Sarkar on Saturday said that the controversy around the removal of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution from the textbook of Class 10 published by the National Council for Educational Research and Training was part of a propaganda, reported ANI.

The NCERT had last year announced that chapter “Heredity and Evolution” will be replaced with “Heredity” in the Class 10 science textbook.

#WATCH | MoS Education Dr. Subhas Sarkar says, "Claims that Darwin's theory has been dropped from NCERT curriculum are misleading. When rationalisation of courses was being done due to COVID to reduce the burden on students, there was no Darwin's theory upto class 10th. If any… pic.twitter.com/1stAYdw37R— ANI Digital (@ani_digital) April 29, 2023

On April 20, over 1,800 scientists, teachers, educators and science popularisers across the country wrote an open letter to NCERT regarding the removal, reported The Print.

They said that the scientific community feels that students will remain “seriously handicapped” in their thought processes “if deprived of exposure to this fundamental discovery of science”.

“An understanding of the process of evolution is crucial in building a scientific temper and a rational worldview,” they said in the letter. “The way Darwin’s painstaking observations and his keen insights led him to the theory of natural selection, educates...