July 7, 2020: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Tuesday announced that it has decided to reduce its syllabus for class 9 to 12 for academic session 2020-2021 by up to 30% in order to make up for academic loss amid novel coronavirus pandemic.

"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," said Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal, Union Minister for Human Resource Development.

The reduction in the syllabus will be in terms of retaining the core concepts, the HRD minister added.

"Considering the importance of achieving the level of learning, the syllabus has been rationalised to the extent possible by retaining the core concepts," CBSE said in a statement.

The board also mentioned that the heads of schools and teachers may 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 part of the topics for Internal Assessment and year-end Board Examination," the statement read.

Alternative Academic Calendar and inputs from the NCERT on transacting the curriculum using different strategies may also be part of the teaching pedagogy.

Pokhriyal also added that he had received more than 1,500 suggestions from educationists across the country on the reduction of the syllabus under the hashtag #SyllabusForStudents2020.

On Sunday, CBSE and Facebook partnered to launch curriculum on “digital safety and online well-being" and “Augmented Reality" for students and educators, Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ said.

According to CBSE officials, the comprehensive curriculum is aimed at ensuring online well-being of students and preparing them for the future of work.

Earlier, amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the educational board had told Supreme Court that the pending board examinations for class 10 and 12, which were scheduled to take place from 1-15 July, were now cancelled.