CBSE reduces syllabus by 30% for classes IX to XII

Scraps citizenship, nationalism, secularism chapters

NEW DELHI: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has rationalised the syllabus for classes IX to XII for the academic year 2020-21 by up to 30 per cent to make up for the academic loss caused due to COVID-19, Union HRD minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ announced on Tuesday. “Looking at the extraordinary situation prevailing in the country and the world, CBSE was advised to revise the curriculum and reduce course load for the students of classes IX to XII.

“To aid the decision, a few weeks back I also invited suggestions from all educationists on the reduction of the 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 rationalise syllabus up to 30 per cent by retaining the core concepts,” he added.

As part of rationalising its syllabus, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Tuesday “completely deleted” chapters on federalism, citizenship, nationalism, and secularism from the political science curriculum of Class XI for the academic year 2020-21.

Apart from these, sub-sections including ‘Why do we need Local Governments?’ and ‘Growth of Local Government in India’ have also been removed from the curriculum. These topics will not be accessed in themselves but teachers have been asked to explain to the students of their relevance with respect to existing topics.

Further, for classes VIII and below, Cbse-affiliated schools will have the freedom to rationalise the syllabus on their own.