Major changes in UP Board English syllabus: Tagore, Radhakrishnan out of UP school books

Students in class 10 and class 12 of the UP Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad (UPMSP), popularly known as UP Board, will no longer study the works of Rabindranath Tagore and former President S. Radhakrishnan, from the new academic session in 2021-22.

Tagore's famous story "The Home Coming" and the essay "The Women's Education" by Radhakrishnan besides A.L. Basham's 'The Heritage of India' have been removed from the curriculum of class 12.

Likewise, RK Narayan's story "An Astrologer's Day" and "The Lost Child" by Mulk Raj Anand, both of which were part of class 12 syllabus, have also been deleted from the curriculum.

Poems of renowned poets like John Milton and P.B. Shelley will no longer be taught to class 12 students.

Sarojini Naidu's poem "The Village Song" that was part of class 10 syllabus has now been removed and so have the works of Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, W.M. Raeburn and R. Srinivasan.

Though UP Board officials are reluctant to comment on the change as it is yet to be put up on the official website of UPMSP, senior officials have confirmed these changes citing an approval received from the state government recently.

"Within the next few days itself, the new curriculum would go online," said a senior official.

Officials said the new NCERT syllabus means the students would need to study lesser number of books now.

There were four books besides grammar in class 12 of UP Board till now, but now just two books "Flamingo" and "Vistas" will be taught.

In high school, however, while there were two books earlier, now two new books "First Flight" and "Footprints Without Feet" will be taught.

As per the new syllabus, students in class 12 in "Flamingo" will study Anees Jung's "Last Spring", William Douglas' "Deep Water" and Louis Fischer's "Indigo" from his work "The Life of Mahatma Gandhi".

In poetry, the students will study poems by famous poets like Kamala Das, Pablo Neruda and John Keats.

In the "Vistas" supplementary book, Pearl S. Buck's "The Enemy" and works of Tishani Doshi, John Updike and Kalki will be taught.

In high school, the students in the prose section of the "First Flight" book will study works by former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela, author N. Frank and Russian writer Anton Chekhov.

In the poetry section, works of famous poets like Robert Frost, Walt Whitman and William Butler Yeats will be featured even as the supplementary book will feature works by renowned authors such as Ruskin Bond, Robert Arthur, H.G. Wells and K.A. Abbas.