Taking into consideration the ongoing corona virus pandemic a and the lockdown imposed in the country, the Center on Tuesday decided to rationalize the syllabus for students of Class 9 to Class 12 studying in the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) board for the academic year 2020-21. Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Union cabinet minister for Human Resource Development tweeted, “Looking at the extraordinary situation prevailing in the country and the world, #CBSE was advised to revise the curriculum and reduce course load for the students of Class 9th to 12th.”

He also informed that a few weeks ago, he had invited suggestions regarding the reduction of the syllabus from educationists and experts and that the Center received more than 1,500 responses. “Considering the importance of learning achievement, it has been decided to rationalize syllabus up to 30 per cent by retaining the core concepts,” he tweeted.
The CBSE also issued a statement regarding the matter which noted that the prevailing health emergency in the country and at different parts of the world as well as the efforts to contain the spread of Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in the loss of classroom teaching due to closure of schools.
Therefore the Board has decided to revise the syllabus for Classes 9 to 12 for the academic session 2020-21. The changes made in the syllabus have been finalized by the respective Course Committees with the approval of the Curriculum Committee and Governing Body of the Board,” the statement read.

It further stated that the heads of the schools and teachers must ensure that the topics that have been reduced are also explained to the students to the extent required to connect different topics. “However, the reduced syllabus will not be a part of the topics for Internal Assessment and year-end Board Examination,” it said.