Lockdown 2.0: Centre To Trim CBSE & ICSE Syllabuses

Bhubaneswar: Taking note that education has been affected for around two months due to the countrywide lockdown, the Centre has decided to trim down the syllabuses for Classes IX, X and XII of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE).

Accordingly, the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has formed a seven-member committee to prepare a blueprint to cut down the syllabuses by 25-30 per cent and the annual academic calendar.

To trim down the number of subjects, the ministry has formed separate committees for each subject. Following their reports, the ministry will finalize the revised syllabuses.

According to sources, two separate expert committees have been formed for schools and higher education institutions to prepare revised annual academic calendars in three categories—Nursery to Class V, Class VI to Class VIII and Class IX to Class XII.

For the higher education institutions, the committees have started formulating the revised syllabuses.

A senior official of the School and Mass Education Department said that the Odisha government is also contemplating to revise syllabuses.

“The School and Mass Education, Higher Education and Technical Education Departments are waiting for the decision of the HRD Ministry. If the ministry trims down the syllabuses at the national level, the state government will also follow the decision accordingly,” he added.

The official also said that keeping the prevailing condition in the country with the rising number of corona patients, it will be difficult to say when the lockdown order will be lifted.