New syllabus for state board Class 4 from 2014

State board Class 4 students will have a new syllabus from the next academic year, while those in Class 8 will have a revised curriculum from 2015. Puja Pednekar reports.

State board Class 4 students will have a new syllabus from the next academic year, while those in Class 8 will have a revised curriculum from 2015.

It was earlier decided that syllabus for Class 3, 5 and 8 in Secondary School Certificate (SSC) schools would be changed in 2014 and those of Class 4, 6 and 7 would be changed in 2015. The Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyaan (RMSA), however, has decided to introduce the new syllabus for Class 4 a year in advance.

“Since Class 3 to 5 are considered primary, while Class 6 to 8 are considered upper primary, we felt that it would be better to follow this order while changing the syllabus,” said Dinkar Patil, joint director of State Council of Educational Research and Technology (SCERT).

The syllabus for all the classes is being upgraded on the basis of the National Curriculum Framework (2005), which seeks to bring all state boards on par with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to bring all students to the same level.

The change of schedule has put pressure on Balbharti, the publisher of SSC textbooks, to bring out the new versions for Class 4 by next year. “We will co-operate with Balbharti to ensure smooth implementation. They already have the new curriculum, so we do not expect any delays in publishing,” Patil said.

However, experts feel that publishing in such haste will lead to textbooks riddled with errors. “New syllabus textbooks as it is have many errors. Now, the sudden change in schedule could only make matters worse as the textbook bureau will be in haste to publish the books,” said Rajesh Pandya, a senior teacher at Fatimadevi English High School, Malad.