The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has rationalised the syllabus for classes 9 to 12 for the academic year 2020-21 by up to 30 per cent, Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' announced on Tuesday. This decision was taken in order to make up for academic loss caused due to COVID-19,

"Looking at the extraordinary situation prevailing in the country and the world, CBSE was advised to revise the curriculum and reduce the course load for the students of classes 9 to 12,” the minister said on Twitter. 

"To aid the decision, a few weeks back I also invited suggestions from all educationists on the reduction of syllabus for students and I am glad to share that we received more than 1.5K suggestions. Thank you, everyone, for the overwhelming response," Nishank tweeted.

"Considering the importance of learning achievement, it has been decided to rationalize syllabus up to 30 per cent by retaining the core concepts," he added.

In a release, the CBSE stated that the changes made in the syllabus have been finalised by the respective course committees, with the approval of the curriculum committee and governing body of the board.

“Considering the importance of achieving the level of learning, the syllabus has been rationalised to the extent possible by retaining the core concepts,” CBSE said. 

The heads of schools and teachers have been asked to ensure that the topics that have been reduced are also explained to the students to the extent required to connect different topics. 

The reduced syllabus, however, will not be part of the topics for internal assessment and year-end Board Examination. 

“Alternative Academic Calendar and inputs from the NCERT on transacting the curriculum using different strategies may also be part of the teaching pedagogy,” the CBSE said.

CBSE said that for elementary Classes (I-VIII), schools may follow the alternative academic calendar and learning outcomes as specified by NCERT.

Universities and schools across the country have been closed since March 16 when the central government announced a countrywide classroom shutdown as one of the measures to contain the COVID-19 outbreak.

A nationwide lockdown was announced on March 24, which came into effect the next day. While the government has eased several restrictions, schools and colleges continue to remain closed.

With inputs from PTI