Chapter on Periodic Table dropped from NCERT Class 10 textbooks, remains for Class 11

Other deletions from the Class 10 Science textbook include passages on Evolution, although it remains a chapter in Class 12 Biology textbook. Incidentally, the Class 11 chapter on the Periodic Table begins with a quote from American chemist Glenn T Seaborg, which describes it as “arguably the most important concept in chemistry, both in principle and in practice.”

“An awareness of the Periodic Table is essential to anyone who wishes to disentangle the world and see how it is built up from the fundamental building blocks of the chemistry, the chemical elements,” Seaborg’s quote further reads.

A chapter in the NCERT textbook for Class 9 deals with the symbols of elements, the atomic mass, and molecules.

Among other topics spiked from Science textbooks is “Fibre and Fabrics”. It was part of the syllabus for Classes 6, 7 and 8. The chapter in the Class 6 textbook had a reference to Mahatma Gandhi’s use of charkha.

“Another hand-operated device for spinning is charkha. Use of charkha was popularised by Mahatma Gandhi as part of the Independence movement. He encouraged people to wear clothes made of homespun yarn and shun imported cloth made in the mills of Britain,” it read.

Another deletion that stands out is “Why do we fall ill”, a chapter in the earlier version of the Science textbook for Class 9. This chapter introduced students to viruses and air-borne diseases such as Covid-19, citing which the rationalisation exercise was carried out by the NCERT.

Apart from its in-house experts, the NCERT had roped in 25 external experts, drawn from the faculty of Delhi University, ICHR, various Kendriya Vidyalayas and private schools for carrying out the rationalisation of its syllabus.

The factors cited by the NCERT behind the deletions include content which are “overlapping”, “not relevant or outdated in the present context”, “difficult”, “easily accessible to children and can be learned through self-learning or peer-learning”.