Academic load in schools heavy, feels ministry; experts disagree

NAGPUR: The ministry of human resource development (MHRD) has sought suggestions from all stakeholders to make the curriculum from Std I-XII ‘more balanced’ so that students can focus on extra curricular activities too. While MHRD is convinced that “load of curriculum in cognitive and analytical area” is heavy, academicians disagree saying the problem lies with societal pressure related to competitive exams.
Anmol Badjatia, principal of Jain International School, said, “I think the curriculum load is at optimum level and there is enough time left for students. The problem is with societal pressure on students which forces them to study the same thing again and again. From school to tuitions to competitive coaching class, the cycle never ends for these kids.” She added that the curriculum ‘has to be dealt with some level of intelligence’ by the planners.

Abha Meghe, director of Meghe Group of Schools, agreed saying curriculum should not be tampered with especially when the problem lies somewhere else. “For competitive exams, the preparation starts from Std VIII itself and the students are under immense pressure at all times. In Std XII, they are preparing both for board exam plus the competitive exam which adds to the chaos. I strongly believe that instead of changing curriculum there must be a rethink on the competitive exams,” said Meghe.

“Tampering with the curriculum will also lead to dilution of quality,” says senior academician Reena Dargan. “A similar change was done a decade ago in Std XII Biology course, which then had content at par with first year of MBBS. Now lot of content from physiology has been scrapped and the course is not as strong. If we keep diluting the quality every 10 years then it is a dangerous thing,” said Dargan. Even she agreed that the academic load is not heavy. “Instead of reducing the load, the planners can redistribute it. For example, in Std IX students are studying about three major historical revolutions, this can be distributed over Std VIII-X,” said Dargan.

The MHRD, in the meantime, has started accepting suggestions online on eight areas ranging from syllabus, textbook to evaluation. All stakeholders have till April 6 to have a say in the process for which the “objective is to make the content more balanced in various subjects offered from Std I-XII as prescribed by NCERT/CBSE”.