Odisha state government to reduce syllabus due to the ongoing lockdown

The Odisha State Government has decided to reduce the school curriculum for the current academic session due to the prolonged lockdown and closure of schools in the state in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The state government has appointed an expert committee to make the decisions on reducing the curriculum for the students. The CBSE and the ICSE board along with a few other state boards had announced that they will be reducing the curriculum for the 020-21 academic year students as a one time measure considering the ongoing COVId9 lockdown and the loss of classes due to it. 

Syllabus reduction will depend on Reopening

Odisha State School and Mass Education Minister Samir Ranjan Das while speaking to the media said that the department was awaiting the Chief Minister’s approval for reducing the school's syllabus. The expert committee which has been formed will work on curating the syllabus and chapters which are to be removed. He also added that the amount of syllabus to be removed will depend on the reopening of the schools. Since the schools will be closed until August 31, 2020, the future situation cannot be known. The amount of curriculum to be reduced will depend on the number of days of academic sessions that will be left for the continuation of classroom teaching. 

The minister also said that the State Council of Education Research and Training will decide the rationalization of the curriculum for the students of class 1 to 8and the Council of Higher Secondary Education will decide on the syllabus for the students from class 9 to 12. 

Basudev Bhatt, the chairman of Odisha Abhibhabak Mahasangha while speaking to the media said that the decision taken by the state to reduce the syllabus is welcome and if things don't get normal in the next few months then suggestions will be made to reschedule the current academic session and restart afresh from December so that the students do not miss anything from the curriculum. 

The students in the state are however of the opinion that it will be better if they are made known in advance which chapters will be omitted since they still continue their studies at home. If they are intimated by the chapters to be omitted in advance it will be easier for them.

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