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School ponder how to teach revised syllabus
New Delhi:
New Delhi:
Two days after the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) reduced the syllabus for classes 9 to 12, affecting more than 1,500,000 students in Delhi, principals and teachers across government and private schools are planning how to cover the remaining part of the curriculum.
The board reduced the course load by approximately 30% but a delay in the decision meant several schools had already covered topics that have been removed.
Ananya Jain, a class 12 student of Delhi Public School, Rohini, said her school had covered several omitted Chemistry topics. “While it is good we won’t get questions on those topics, a lot of time was spent in learning the chapters, especially in science subjects. It would be better if the announcement came at the beginning of the academic year so that we could spend the past two months learning chapters we would be evaluated on,” she said.
Several students from secondary classes, however, are not disappointed. Aria Puri, a class 9 student of Amity International, Saket, said, “We understood the concepts of chapters that have been left out as they were already covered. Since we are not being evaluated on them, there will be less rote learning. We will be doing activities and projects from the dropped chapters because we may need them in higher classes.”
On Tuesday, CBSE announced that due to loss of classroom teaching amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the board revised the syllabi and schools could ensure the removed topics are also explained to students to understand other concepts. However, they would not be evaluated on the omitted topics in the 2020-21 examinations.
The decision to drop certain chapters from social science, political science, and history was questioned by many, including Delhi education minister Manish Sisodia who on Wednesday sought a response from the board on how the deleted topics were chosen. This came on a day when CBSE clarified that the topics dropped from the syllabi were covered in the Alternative Academic Calendar prepared by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).
For instance, the academic calendar prescribes a list of activities for learning outcomes involving explanations of Equality, Justice, Democracy, Freedom, and post-Independence era politics, which can be tied to the topics removed for class 12 Political Science students, which includes Secularism, Nationalism, and Citizenship.
Ameeta Wattal, principal of Springdales, Pusa Road, is meeting teachers to plan on how to integrate the removed topics with existing chapters. “While topics like Federalism, Citizenship and Democracy have been removed from Political Science, there are other topics like Liberty, Principles of Constitution or the Preamble where teachers can bring in these aspects. Teachers have to strategise teaching-learning in such a way that important concepts are integrated with other chapters, which have the windows where these topics can be taught,” she said.
Wattal said research-oriented presentations can be assigned to students for learning since online education calls for a concept-based learning approach. “Some of the topics are crucial areas for children and they cannot be let go as it is needed to understand governance and economic processes. Through NCERT calendar and research projects, these aspects can be brought in for students,” she said.
For the 1,030 government schools, all affiliated to CBSE, following a concept-based learning approach through research projects may not be easy. Rakesh Semalty, principal of Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalaya in Nand Nagri, said, “We are working on keeping in touch with our students and making sure they have the means to continue learning. At a time when classes have moved online, students might face issues with projects and activities, which often lead to increased internet usage,” he said.
“We will be focusing on chapters that have been included in the syllabi and then go through the chapters that have been removed so that students grasp the topics better. This is crucial since students need a deeper understanding of concepts, especially those appearing for competitive examinations,” he said.
Shashi Chaudhary, a chemistry teacher at a government school in Shalimar Bagh, said, “Despite our consistent efforts, the one-to-one connect between students and teachers during online teaching is not as strong as it is in classroom learning. Along with focusing on the reduced syllabus in the upcoming classes, teachers have to adapt the course material for online learning which can be a challenge for many as not all of us are fluent with technological tools.”
