Telangana Board excludes 70% syllabus as theory, 30% as practicals for academic year 2020-2021, 25L students likely to get affected

As many as 25 lakh students in Telangana are likely to be affected as the State Council of Educational Research and Training has revised the syllabus for Class 1 to 10. The syllabus of Telangana state board students has been partially converted into projects or practical activities — exams to which will not be conducted. 

According to TOI, for the academic year, 2020-21 students from classes 1 to 10 will have only 70% theory lessons — or core concepts — that they need to study for their internal, summative and board exams. However, the remaining 30% will involve practical activities, which will not be part of any assessment.

The changes in the syllabus have been made based on Central government guidelines that stress on more project-based learning, an official told TOI.

“Considering students are learning from home, we have to engage them more in activities/projects. Concepts which can be taught through practical intervention, such as nature, protection of trees etc. will be taught as part of activities/projects. Those



which require explanation and thorough understanding will be taught in detail,” A Sridevasena told TOI. All subjects — either theory or practical — will, however, be taught to all students.

This mean, Class 10 students will now have to submit projects on subjects such as literacy rates (as per Census of 2011), population, dispersion of light etc, instead of writing answers on them. On the other hand for Class 8 students, projects will include a reproduction of animals or even disaster management. 

However, teachers and school managements fear that this rationalisation of the syllabus might lead to ambiguity in teaching. 

“We fear that many teachers may skip teaching some portions completely considering exams will not be held for the activity/project based syllabus. In many districts, teachers and parents are already overworked due to online classes. If 30% of the topics are not part of the core syllabus, many may not even bother to teach them,” Chava Ravi, general secretary, Telangana State United Teachers Federation told TOI.