Telangana: Inter Board Defers Syllabus Revision After Govt’s Order

Hyderabad: The Board of Intermediate Education (BIE) has decided to postpone the proposed changes to syllabus after the government asked the academic body to conduct a detailed study on such revision. Similarly, the government has rejected the board’s proposal to change exam pattern for arts and commerce streams by introducing 20 marks for internals and 80 marks for theory.

As the Intermediate syllabus was last revised in 2012, the Inter Board Education and Research Wing has been reviewing the syllabus to identify the topics that need to be deleted and those that need to be incorporated in sync with NCERT and NEP 2020 guidelines. The board had also planned to reduce the syllabus to reduce the burden on students and to promote practical learning.

The board had planned to introduce the new syllabus for first-year students from the 2025-26 academic year, followed by the implementation of the revised second-year syllabus in 2026-27.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, a BIE official said, “The government has ordered the board to conduct a more detailed study before making any changes and to constitute a working group committee including subject experts, educationists, and senior Inter Board officials. The government advised the Board that syllabus changes at this stage would lead to confusion and that printing the textbooks in a short span would be difficult, as the academic year begins on June 2, 2025. The syllabus revision study will continue, and a new committee will be formed as per the government’s directions,” officials added.

Senior faculty members and subject experts said the subject revision exercise must be carried out over a year and not rushed. They pointed out that the Telangana Inter syllabus is larger compared to the NCERT syllabus. They also objected to the proposal of introducing 20 marks for internals, arguing that it would reduce student attendance.

A senior faculty member mentioned, “The syllabus for mathematics and sciences is aligned with competitive exam standards. As internals have been removed in Class 10, there is no point in introducing them for Intermediate students.”

After the Covid-19 pandemic, NCERT reduced its syllabus by 30 per cent to ease the burden on students. The NCERT syllabus, which is adapted for the Intermediate syllabus, should have been reduced immediately, experts said. They added that updating the syllabus to include the latest topics as basics is also necessary.

An arts subject expert said there is a need to update arts stream topics, as students are still studying outdated subjects like the Planning Commission, which has been replaced by NITI Aayog. Topics such as the history of the state, the Telangana movement, and the demography of the state, which have changed after the state bifurcation, have not been extensively updated.

The expert added that students are preparing merely for the sake of marks, as exam questions are based strictly on the existing syllabus. Updating the syllabus regularly with relevant information will benefit students. Experts in Intermediate Education suggested that the Board should plan well in advance to revise the syllabus for the 2026 academic year.