New Delhi, July 7: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) reduced the education syllabus by nearly one-third for students in classes 9 to 12, announced Union Minister for Human Resources and Development (HRD) Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal on Tuesday. The decision comes amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to the suspension of routine classes since mid-March.

"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," Pokhriyal said, as he announced the reduction in annual syllabus for the four crucial grades. ICSE, ISC Syllabus Reduced By 25% For Academic Year 2020-21 Due To COVID-19: CISCE.

"To aid the decision, a few weeks back I also invited suggestions from all educationists on the reduction of syllabus for students and I am glad to share that we received more than 1.5 thousand suggestions. Thank you, everyone, for the overwhelming response," he added.

"Considering the importance of learning achievement, it has been decided to rationalize syllabus up to 30% by retaining the core concepts," the HRD Minister announced on Twitter.

See Ramesh Pokhriyal's Tweet

In the past week, the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) announced a reduction of 25 percent in the syllabus for ICSE (Class 10th) and ISC (Class 12th) batch for the academic year 2020-21. The decision was stemmed by the washout of last three months due to the virus outbreak, and uncertainty prevailing over the date when schools and colleges can resume operation.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 07, 2020 05:16 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).