With the coming academic year (2020-21) likely to be delayed, resulting in fewer academic days, school managements have urged the State government to reduce the portions for schools affiliated to the State board.
The managements are anticipating a delay of one and a half months and expect that schools will start by the end of June or in July. Every year, the academic year for State syllabus schools begins by the end of May.
D. Shashi Kumar, general secretary of the Associated Managements of Primary and Secondary Schools in Karnataka, said the syllabus for all subjects should be reduced by 10% to 15%. “This needs to be done in a very methodical way, as the chapters of many grades are in a sequence. If certain chapters are cut from one grade, they need to be included in the next grade,” he said.
The principal of a city-based school in Rajajinagar said, “Primary school students are not college students who can be taught classes online. We also cannot cram all the portions on them in a short duration. The department needs to consider our advice seriously.”
Officials of the Department of Primary and Secondary Education said they would chalk out a plan by mid-May and ensure that the school managements complete all the portions.
Meanwhile, many schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) have planned online classes for the first few months. “We have been asked to make PowerPoint presentations and use other visual aids to make the online classes interactive. We have been told that the classes should be designed in a manner that the attention of students remains,” said a mathematics teacher working with a school affiliated to CBSE in Indiranagar.
However, parents are not for cutting of portions. Sujata S., a parent who has two children in primary school, said, “It is in the initial primary school years that students get a foundation of the basic concepts. We want the government to retain all the lessons,” she said.
Vacation on YouTube
The Department of Public Instruction plans to start a YouTube channel for students during their summer vacation. The channel will have an hour-long programme that will include songs, stories, quiz, paintings, dance, and games. There will be both educational and fun activities, said Primary and Secondary Education Minister S. Suresh Kumar. He said that people could send in their activities for the channel.
