India has dropped Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and the periodic table of elements from some school textbooks, part of a widening campaign by the Hindu nationalist government that has prompted warnings from educators about the impact on teaching and the country’s vital tech sector.
More than 4,500 scientists, teachers and others have signed a petition saying they “disagree with such dangerous changes in school science education and demand to restore the theory of Darwinian evolution in secondary education” to grade 10 textbooks.
The curriculum changes, previously reported by the journal Nature, have been confirmed in a “list of rationalised content” published last month by India’s National Council of Educational Research & Training (NCERT) as Indian schoolchildren return to classes.