NCERT Textbooks Row: In an open letter, 1800 scientists, educators express concern over dropping important topics from Science textbooks

The letter has been signed by over 1,800 scientists, science teachers and educators, which include scientists from noted institutions such as Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) and IITs, among others. The scientific community feels that students will remain seriously handicapped in their thought process if deprived of exposure to this fundamental discovery of science.

“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 by NCERT on the list of rationalised content in textbooks for Class 10, in Science subjects, chapter 9, earlier titled ‘Heredity and Evolution’, has been replaced with ‘Heredity’.

The list of dropped topics in this chapter includes Charles Robert Darwin, Origin of life on Earth, Molecular Phylogeny, Evolution, and Tracing Evolutionary Relationships, among others.