Hyderabad: The Central Board of Secondary Education recently announced that it had decided to cut its syllabus by half in order to reduce the burden on students. Its decision has been met with criticism as teachers believe that an arbitrary revision of the syllabus without academic review is pointless.
Kishore Keshav, a member of the Teachers’ Federation, says, “A shortening of the syllabus is being planned to ensure that students have more time for extracurricular activities. But more importantly, we need to ensure that our students are receiving the right information and that they are not walking out of school with old knowledge.”
English teacher Kiran Panjwani says that the entire Indian education system is in need of an overhaul.
“The National Curriculum Framework of 2005 needs to be redesigned and updated based on inputs from teachers. Since teachers interact with students on a daily basis, they can help make the syllabus more child-friendly. Instead of cutting the syllabus, we should work towards developing quality content,” he says.
Teachers say that a revision of the syllabus must be overseen by an expert committee to ensure that it is carried out in the right manner.
