For Classes 8 and below, CBSE-affiliated schools will have to freedom to rationalise the syllabus on their own. (File)
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is likely to reduce the syllabus by one-third for the Class 10 and 12 exams next year, The Indian Express has learned.
The Board will soon announce the syllabus cut, a one-time measure to make up for instructional time lost to the Covid-enforced shutdown.
The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) assisted the CBSE in pruning the syllabus.
Rather than recommending the reduction of a full chapter, the Board asked NCERT to suggest topics and themes which are “either repeated or overlapped or learning outcomes related to it are being covered under other chapters”. “All suggestions are based on learning outcomes,” said a source.
As first reported by this newspaper on June 19, the age of industrialisation in History, area of a triangle and frustum of a cone in Mathematics, and in Science, physical properties of metals and non-metals, and the ‘Tyndall Effect’ on the eye could be among concepts and topics that Class 10 students may not be assessed on in their Board exams next year.
For Classes 8 and below, CBSE-affiliated schools will have to freedom to rationalise the syllabus on their own.
Last week, the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) became the first school board to announce a significant reduction in ICSE and ISC exams next year. All subjects have had their syllabus reduced by up to 25%. The Board may further increase the proportion of syllabus cut if schools do not open in August.
“Syllabus reduction has been done keeping in mind the linear progression across classes, while ensuring that the core concepts related to the subject are retained,” CISCE Chief Gerry Arathoon had told The Indian Express.
For instance, Subhas Chandra Bose and his Indian National Army, the origin of the “Kashmir problem” and the Janata government (1977-1979) are among the topics that have been dropped from Indian history for Class 12 CISCE students. De-colonisation of China, the establishment of the People’s Republic and the Oslo Peace Accords have been removed from world history.