{"id":247853,"date":"2023-06-14T20:03:23","date_gmt":"2023-06-14T14:33:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=247853"},"modified":"2023-06-14T20:03:23","modified_gmt":"2023-06-14T14:33:23","slug":"why-every-indian-must-learn-about-evolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/why-every-indian-must-learn-about-evolution\/","title":{"rendered":"Why every Indian must learn about evolution"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Source<\/strong>&#8211; The post is based on the article <strong>\u201cWhy every Indian must learn about evolution\u201d <\/strong>published in <strong>\u201cThe Indian Express\u201d <\/strong>on <strong>14th June 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Syllabus: <\/strong>GS2- Issues related to development and management of education<\/p>\n<p><strong>Relevance- <\/strong>Issues related to curriculum<\/p>\n<p><strong>News<\/strong>&#8211; Textbooks published NCERT books for middle and high school classes in India have omitted some chapters. Among the most noticeable are the chapters on evolution and the chapter on the Periodic Table of Elements from the Class 9 and Class 10 science textbooks.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>How there exists faith-based denial of Darwin\u2019s theory of evolution across the world?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The creation of man by god has always been among the<strong> most preserved beliefs<\/strong> of several religions and religious societies.<\/p>\n<p>Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Algeria and Oman <strong>do not teach evolution<\/strong> in schools or universities. In Egypt and Tunisia, evolution is taught but it is presented as an <strong>\u201cunproven hypothesis\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Some states in the United States had eithe<strong>r banned the teaching <\/strong>of evolution or decided to teach it alongside \u201ccreationism\u201d. Various judgements by the US supreme court blocked the <strong>restrictions on teaching evolution. <\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why is the teaching of Darwin theory of evolution important for India?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>India is facing the challenges of <strong>institutionalised caste and other forms of inequalities.<\/strong> Teaching evolution from an early stage helps to shape <strong>critical minds<\/strong> and sharpen <strong>arguments against institutionalised discrimination. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It is important to read and understand the evolution of humans beyond the purview of <strong>religious manuscripts.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why does the NCERT approach of post-Covid rationalisation of curriculum appear irrational?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>First, the<strong> teaching of evolution<\/strong> will be limited now to students who <strong>take up science<\/strong> in Class 11. The <strong>75th round of NSSO data<\/strong> shows that 74% of the population, 18 years and above, dropped out of school before reaching Class 12.<\/p>\n<p>Many young students could lose an opportunity to study evolution after the <strong>NCERT\u2019s rationalisation exercise.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Teaching evolution to primary or secondary school children is about more than <strong>imparting scientific knowledge<\/strong>. It is part of the<strong> holistic scientific development<\/strong> of children.<\/p>\n<p>Learning about the basics of evolution broadens the<strong> horizon of children <\/strong>to understand the <strong>process of life beyond the socio-religious sphere<\/strong>. It generates ideas and <strong>enhances rational thinking<\/strong>. It imparts the <strong>ability to question the status quo. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Science helps society by asking <strong>uncomfortable questions <\/strong>about itself and initiating debates.<\/p>\n<p>In a consumerist world, nations work through <strong>optics<\/strong>. The government wants to appear good to the rest of the world. Therefore, the deletion of evolution from school textbooks is<strong> bad optics. <\/strong>Nature has done an editorial on the <strong>rationalisation exercises<\/strong>. It notes that in recent times India is taking pride in its <strong>ancient knowledge. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source&#8211; The post is based on the article \u201cWhy every Indian must learn about evolution\u201d published in \u201cThe Indian Express\u201d on 14th June 2023. Syllabus: GS2- Issues related to development and management of education Relevance- Issues related to curriculum News&#8211; Textbooks published NCERT books for middle and high school classes in India have omitted some&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/why-every-indian-must-learn-about-evolution\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Why every Indian must learn about evolution<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10500],"class_list":["post-247853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-indian-express","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704857776},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247853\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}