PSEB to cut syllabus by 30% for Class 9-12 on CBSE lines

› The approval of the academic council will be required before any topics or chapters are taken out of syllabus for the current academic session.

MOHAMMAD TAYYAB , director general of school education d

CHANDIGARH : Amid coronavirus pandemic, the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) is contemplating to reduce the syllabus for classes 9 to 12 for the current academic session by up to 30% on the pattern of the Central Board of School Education (CBSE).

A committee comprising subject experts from the PSEB and State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) has been set up by the school education department for the reduction in the course load to ease the burden on students.

School education secretary Krishan Kumar said the committee was set up under SCERT director Jagtar Singh Kularia to take into consideration the views of different stakeholders, including academicians, teachers, and parents, and suggest the reduction in the syllabus for the academic year 2020-21. “No final view has been taken so far. The exercise will take another three to four days,” he told HT two days ago.

The CBSE had last week announced to reduce the syllabus of classes 9 to 12 by almost a third to make up for the academic loss that happened due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown. Earlier, the Council for the Indian Schools Certificate Examination (CISCE) had also revised its syllabus

for the same reason.

The panel comprising subject experts of PSEB and SCERT will go by the CBSE pattern for reduction of up to 30% in syllabus, according to two officials familiar with the matter. “The topics to be dropped from the syllabus are being finalised,” one of them said.

On Sunday, the state education board uploaded the lists of “reduced syllabus topics” of several subjects for secondary and senior secondary classes on its official website, but these were quickly removed the same day.

As per the uploaded list of subjects for Class 10, three chapters, including those on the AngloSikh wars and annexation of Punjab, and Punjab’s struggle for freedom, are to be dropped from the history syllabus, besides map work. Similarly, two chapters each are reduced from geography and civics syllabus.

Kularia, in a statement on Monday, said the syllabus of various subjects of classes 9 to 12 was uploaded on the website without any approval and no syllabus of any class had been reduced yet. “The uploading of syllabus on the board’s website without the approval of the government is a serious negligence,” he said. The SCERT director has written to the chairman, Punjab School Education Board, to take departmental action against the employee who has uploaded this syllabus on the site.

Director general of school education Mohammad Tayyab said the approval of the academic council will be required before any topics or chapters are taken out of syllabus for the current academic session.

Punjab, which was among the first states to impose a curfew on March 23, has tried to give a push to online teaching, but there have been questions about its reach as a significant number of children enrolled in government schools belong to the economically disadvantaged families and do not have smartphones and connectivity required for accessing digital lessons.

Chief minister Amarinder Singh had on Sunday also asked the school education department to ensure equal educational opportunity and access for all students, including the poor and rural ones.