Many removed topics covered, new CBSE syllabus a challenge THE BOARD REDUCED SYLLABUS BY ABOUT 30% BUT A DELAY IN SEVERAL SCHOOLS HAD ALREADY COVERED THOSE TOPICS THE DECISION MEANT

Many removed topics covered, new CBSE syllabus a challenge 

THE BOARD REDUCED SYLLABUS BY ABOUT 30% BUT A DELAY IN SEVERAL SCHOOLS HAD ALREADY COVERED THOSE TOPICS THE DECISION MEANT

NEWDELHI: Two days after the Cen- tral Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) reduced the syllabus for classes 9to 12 due to the lack of classroom teaching amid the ongoing pandemic, affecting more than 1,500,000 students in Delhi, principals and teachers across government and private schools are planning how to cover theremaining curriculum. The board reduced the course load by approximately 30% buta delay in the decision meant several schools had already covered topics that have been removed.
However, students will not be evaluated on the omitted topics in the 2020-21 examinations. Ananya Jain, a class 12 student of Delhi Public School, Rohini, said her school had covered sev- eral omitted Chemistry topics.
While it is good we won't get questions on those topics, a lot of time was spent on them. It would be better if the announcement had come at the beginning of the academic year so that we could have spent the past two months learning chapters we would be evaluated on," she said. Several students from second- ary classes, however, are not dis-appointed. Aria Puri,a class9 stu- dent of Amity International, Saket, said, "We understood the concepts of chapters that have been left out as they werealready covered.

Many removed topics covered, new CBSE syllabus a challenge THE BOARD REDUCED SYLLABUS BY ABOUT 30% BUT A DELAY IN SEVERAL SCHOOLS HAD ALREADY COVERED THOSE TOPICS THE DECISION MEANT

Since we are not being evaluated on them, there will be less rote learning. We will be doing activities and projectsfrom the dropped chapters because we may need them in higher classes." The decision to drop certain chapters from social science, political science, and history was questioned by many, including Delhieducation minister Manish Siso a class 9 stu-dia who on Wednesday sought a response from the board on how the deleted topics were chosen.
This came ona day when CBSE clarified that the topics dropped from the syllabi were covered in the Alternative Aca- demic Calendar prepared by the National Council  of Educational Researchand Training(NCERT).
For instance, the academic cal- endar prescribes a list of activi- ties for learning outcomes involv- ing explanations of Equality, Jus- tice, Democracy, Freedom, and post-Independence era politics, which can be tied to the topics removed for class 12 Political Sci- ence students, which includes Secularism, Nationalism, and Citizenship. Ameeta Wattal, principal of Springdales, Pusa Road, is meet- ing teachers to plan on how to integrate the removed topics with existing chapters.
"Teachers haveto strategise teaching-learn- ing in such a way that important concepts are integrated with other chapters, which have the windows where these topics can be taught," she said. For the 1,030 government schools, all affiliated to CBSE, fol- lowing a concept-based learning approach through research pro- jects may not be easy.
Rakesh Semalty, principal of Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalaya in Nand Nagri, 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 stu- dents grasp the topics better."