NEW DELHI: As many as 1,800 scientists, educators, science teachers, science popularizers, and citizens from various reputable institutions have expressed their dissatisfaction and serious concerns regarding the removal of Darwin’s theory of biological evolution from the class X science syllabus in NCERT book.
These concerned individuals, under the Breakthrough Science Society (BSS), jointly signed an open letter urging the government to continue teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution with sufficient importance in the 9th and 10th standard science books of NCERT. The chapter on the theory was initially removed as an interim measure for syllabus reduction during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the NCERT document has since stated that it has been permanently dropped as a step in “content rationalization.”
The country’s scientific community believes that students’ thought processes will be seriously handicapped if they are deprived of exposure to this fundamental discovery of science. The cornerstones of rational thinking, including the fact that the biological world is constantly changing, that evolution is a law-governed process that does not require divine intervention, and that humans have evolved from some species of ape, have been in place since Darwin proposed his theory of natural selection.
The concerned parties condemn the NCERT’s directive and demand that Darwin’s theory of evolution be taught with sufficient importance in the 9th and 10th standard science books. They further state that understanding evolutionary biology is not only important for any subfield of biology but also crucial to understanding the world around us.
They highlight the imperative of this chapter on Darwin’s theory, emphasizing that understanding the process of evolution is crucial in building a scientific temper and a rational worldview. They claim that the way Darwin’s painstaking observations and keen insights led him to the theory of natural selection educates students about the process of science and the importance of critical thinking.
Ex-minister criticises Darwin’s theory
Satya Pal Singh, former minister of state for human resource development, said Darwin’s theory of evolution was “scientifically wrong”, and “It needs to be changed in curriculums. Since man has been seen on Earth, he has always been a man. Nobody saw an ape turning into a man,” he said.