The periodic table of elements etc. is withdrawn from Indian textbooks. Credit: Noah Seelam/AFP/Getty

In India, students under the age of 16 who return to school in May will no longer learn about evolution, the periodic table of elements, energy and more.

The policy, announced last year by the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT), which is responsible for formulating Indian school curricula and textbook content, said it would ease the pressure on students to learn online during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Nature. Teachers and researchers had expected the content to be restored once students returned to the classroom, but the reality was the opposite, with NCERT not only printing textbooks for the new school year with abridged content, but saying that the change would be implemented over the next two years. will continue.

Last month, news that India would delete evolution-related content from courses for 15-16-year-old students caused dissatisfaction among many people, and thousands of people protested the move through a joint petition.

But the official guidance has not changed, and even other elements such as the periodic table of elements, energy and environmental sustainability will be removed. Lower school pupils will no longer study subjects related to pollution and climate change, while senior pupils will see cuts in subjects such as biology, chemistry, geography, maths and physics. The changes will affect about 134 million students aged 11-18 in Indian schools.

The changes have alarmed researchers in India and elsewhere. Jonathan Osbörne, a science education researcher at Stanford University in the United States, pointed out that the theory of evolution is the basis of biology, and the periodic table of elements explains how the components of life combine to produce substances with completely different properties, which is one of the great achievements of chemists one.

"Content related to air pollution, water resources and other resource management has been deleted. But I don't think water resources and air protection are irrelevant to us, especially at present." India Tata Institute of Social Science Science Teacher Training Teacher Mythili Ramchand said.

To this end, more than 4,500 scientists, teachers, and science communicators have signed a joint book organized by the nonprofit Breakthrough Science Association to restore the axed theory of evolution.

However, NCERT has not yet responded to the above appeal, nor has it communicated with teachers and parents.

(Original title "Periodic Table and Others Withdraw from Indian Textbooks")