CBSE rationalising its curriculum amid Covid; chairman eyes finalising within a month

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is working on rationalising the curriculum to make up for the academic loss caused by Coronavirus pandemic, and the reduced syllabus will be ready in a month's time, board chairman Manoj Ahuja said on Friday.

'We are rationalising the curriculum'

"We cannot bring sudden changes in the education system and create confusion and uncertainty. The curriculum reforms are going to be in sync with the learning outcomes," he said during a virtual conference on 'Future of Schools: Overcoming COVID-19 challenge and beyond' organised by Ashoka University. 

"We are rationalising the curriculum. We plan to retain the core elements, which are very necessary in terms of learning outcomes," he added.

"If something is duplicated in some way or working extra on the same concept, we aim to shelve it and thirdly anything which can be done in a more practical manner should be done that way. That's what we are planning and we should be able to finalise within a month's time," he said.

Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' had announced in April that CBSE will be reducing the curriculum for the next academic calendar for all the classes to make up for the lost time due to the COVID-19 lockdown asserting that the curriculum will be curtailed in proportion to the lost time.

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The HRD Ministry has come up with an alternative calendar for different grades detailing the learning plan during the lockdown. Universities and schools across the country have been closed since March 16, when the Centre announced a countrywide classroom shutdown as part of a slew of measures to contain the Coronavirus outbreak.

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Meanwhile, the exams which were postponed in view of the COVID-19 lockdown will now be conducted from July 1 to 15. While the Class 12 exams will be conducted across the country, the Class 10 exams are only pending in North East Delhi. A 21-day nationwide lockdown was announced on March 24, which came into effect the next day. While the government has announced the easing of certain restrictions, schools and colleges continue to remain closed.

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(With PTI inputs)