Odisha to prune school course for current session
Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has decided to reduce the school curriculum for the current academic session as the prolonged lockdown due to the pandemic has led to the closure of schools.
An expert committee has been formed to take decisions on the curriculum. National boards like the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) have already reduced their curriculum by 25% to 30% for the current academic session.
“We were waiting for the chief minister’s approval on reducing the school curriculum. The expert committees formed will decide upon the chapters to be removed,” said school and mass education minister Samir Ranjan Das.
The percentage of syllabus to be removed depends upon the reopening of schools, he said. “The schools will remain shut till August 31 and we cannot predict the situation after that. So the course load to be removed will depend on the number of days of the academic session that will be left for continuation of classroom teaching,” Das said.
The minister said the State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT) will decide on the rationalisation of curriculum for Class I to Class VIII and the Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE) will decide on the course for Class XI and XII in the state.
Das pointed out that unlike CBSE, the state government does not want to get into any controversy over selection of chapters to be removed for the current academic session.
“It is certainly a welcome decision by the state government to rationalise the course curriculum. If things don’t get normalised in the next couple of months than we suggest the government to reschedule the current academic session and restart it afresh from December, so that children need not miss anything from the curriculum,” said Basudev Bhatt, chairman of Odisha Abhibhabak Mahasangha.
However, students feel it would be better if they know in advance the chapters that need to be studied. “Even though we are not going to school, we are continuing our studies at home. If we know about the chapters to be studied, it will be easier for us,” said Tarun Parida, a Class X student.