Don't get me wrong when I say that I was a big fan of chapters being deleted from the curriculum as a 13-14-year-old. We've all been there, right? Who doesn't love less number of chapters to prepare for the final examination? It gave me such joy even if it was just 1 chapter. Today, on the contrary as an 18-year-old, I am infuriated by the constant deletion of chapters in the last few years. Now the problem isn't the deletion of a few chapters here and there, in fact, it is very normal to do so, at least in subjects of the Commerce and Science stream. I mean; rationalizing the syllabus during the pandemic surely lightened the burden on students by a few milligrams.

The matter of worry though, my friend is the correlation amongst all those deleted chapters, boxes of information and topics in History and Political Science of Class 11 and Class 12 (CBSE). 'Kings and Chronicles', The Mughal Courts(16th and 17th centuries), Central Islamic Lands, Confrontation of Cultures, the Industrial Revolution, the Rise of popular movements, The Crisis of democratic order and several other topics like Gujarat Riots were omitted in the 2022-23 session. 

Do you see what I'm saying? Did you also notice anything common among the above-mentioned omitted chapters? It's almost as if the officials don't want children to study about their country's past entirely. Students are only taught the information which is given to them in a concise manner,  that contains the government's stamp of approval. On top of it CBSE has added additional topics about The Bhartiya Janata party, it's ideology and NDA in Class 12.  Gujarat riots  - a small one-paragraph topic was deleted from the last chapter of Political Science, Class 12.  I get it though,  students shouldn't read about any of the blunders made by the ruling party. Government, unapologetically wants students to be taught only about their acts of bravery and valour not about any of their failures. 

So strange right? How the books still remain  with only outdated content but additional topics about the ruling party were included in the curriculum through PDFs (PDFs provided by CBSE -subject-wise) 

 It's almost like that time in Harry Potter when Professor Umbridge restricted students from learning spells to defend themselves against the dark and evil. She changed their books completely and placed emphasis on theoretical knowledge being sufficient enough to pass the O.W.L.S.

Hahaha, isn't this way more relatable than ever?

Harry Potter's supposed to be, only a fantasy novel right?

But seriously, why is good education so inaccessible today? You have to compete with lakhs of students for that one seat in a government college, whilst keeping in mind that only a few thousand get selected eventually. Still, Indian students never cribbled about how everything is so hard with the endless number of people aspiring for the same thing. 

The fate of the dejected ones is to settle for compromised education in a make-do college, carrying the pressure of gaining skills over the next 3-4 years. That's how things have been since forever and no one was complaining about it but this time in 2024, something bizarre happened. Any average Indian is familiar with how transparent examinations are conducted in India. Paper leaks are no surprise to any of us.

Yet 2024 was a shocker, with 67 students getting AIR-1 in NEET, 6 of them having a score of 720 with grace marks. Private institutions with their skyrocketing fees can't offer solace to the lakhs of students who'd now have to put their dreams on hold for another year.

2024 is also the year when NTA decided to conduct CUET in Hybrid mode for the first time ever. At first, it looked progressive and student-friendly to students and teachers alike. Well, that didn't last for even a minute after the first day of CUET got over. There was severe Mismanagement in paper distribution at many centres and English, being a language requires a bit more time right? It's not like the other theory subjects where you either know the answer or you just don't. In spite of that students got only 45 minutes due to which many couldn't finish the paper on time.

The recent uprising that took place against the NTA subsequently led them to cancel UGC-NET AND NEET PG which were supposed to be held last week. It must've been so crazy to study for an exam; day and night, only for it to be cancelled at the last minute.

Does anyone fancy a joke? I'll tell you one.

We sweat it all out in those examinations like CUET, JEE etc. only to find ourselves facing the fact that our curriculum is not industry oriented at all, especially for courses like BA. There are barely any universities teaching us the relevant things or equipping us with the necessary skills for a decent job which is correlated to our subject of interest. The choice of programs being so tight doesn't leave students with a lot of options to choose from.

The biggest takeaway for us, from all this?

It's the fact that the officials who are responsible for everything that you just read, are intent on keeping up the pressure. Always remember, 

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."

'We', the Youth of India must stand together and lead the way for the younger ones. 

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