Medical Council of India- Rationale and Features of Biology Syllabus

Medical Council of India

BIOLOGY

Information 

In the present attempt of the NCERT to revise the Biology syllabus of the Classes XI and  XII , several documents like ‘Learning without Burden’, the National Curriculum  Framework-2005, the report of the ‘National Focus Group on Teaching of Science’ as  well as reports of several external and internal reviews carried out, helped to decide the  main focus of the revision. Hence, the revised syllabus aims primarily at reducing the  information load while ensuring at the same time that ample opportunities and scope for  learning and appreciating basic concepts of Biology continues to be available within the  framework.

The Biology Syllabus reinforces the ideas introduced in the lower classes while the  children learn new concepts besides getting an exposure to contemporary areas of  Biology. The syllabus aims also at emphasizing the underlying principles that are  common to both animals and plants, as well as highlighting the interrelationships of  Biology with other areas of knowledge. The format of the syllabus allows a simple, clear,  sequential flow of concepts without any jarring jumps. The empirical experience gained  and practical exercises carried out during the course would prepare the student to handle  Biology easily at higher levels in case she / he opts to continue further studies in this area.  The revised syllabus stresses the connection of the study of Biology to real life problemsuse of biological discoveries / innovations in everyday life-in environment, industry, medicine, health and agriculture.

Since it was important that the quality of Biology education at the higher secondary level was not compromised in any way, the reduction in load from the syllabus required a very careful selection of topics to be taught. The Committee chose to leave topics out if: the question about why the child needs to study the topics at the particular stage could not be answered; if the topic had no direct relevance to the child i.e. was not contextual; if the  content was repetitive across stages with no change in expected understanding, and if any  topic was in isolation with no evident horizontal or vertical linkages. The need for a  network of ideas and cross-linking between the areas being identified was deemed very

important. While deciding on the units / topics and the depth of each topic for the higher  secondary level, a holistic view of the syllabus across all stages from the primary to the  higher secondary and beyond was taken. Reducing the use of too many technical terms  and avoiding very large numbers of examples will also help to make the content a little  lighter. The importance of careful selection of illustrations and their use to make the  concepts more explicit was stressed; in Biology the quality of illustrations can make or  mar any attempt at good textbooks / teaching.

The principal objective at this stage would be to explore the variations amongst the living  and developing respect for the diversities, and to appreciate that the most complex  biological phenomena are also built on essentially simple processes. Learning Biology  should uncover these elementary aspects and illustrate their linkage to more complex  phenomena. It was also felt that the contributions of scientists (women scientists in  particular) that led to critical and important discoveries in Biology should be highlighted,  not merely through a chronological listing, but through brief biographical discussions, in  a effort to bring out the processes that led to the discovery of principles and ideas in  Biology. These would stimulate critical and creative thinking. Besides, the proposed  course at the higher secondary stage provides substantial orientation to the students to  professional / career opportunities available in medicine, agriculture, research teaching  and industry.

The syllabus also takes up issues pertaining to environment, health and other ethical  issues that arise with any interference of human beings in the natural processes, which  have great relevance from the societal.

Feedback may be forwarded to neet-ug@mciindia.org  by 11th Aug 2011