NE NEWS SERVICE
CHENNAI, SEP 18
About 40 per cent of the syllabus for school students in Tamil Nadu has been reduced for this academic year based an expert committee’s recommendation in the backdrop of COVID-19 pandemic, said School Education Minister K A Sengottaiyan here on Friday.
The 18-member panel, set up to look into reducing the syllabus for the 2020-21 academic year in view of closure of schools due to COVID-19, submitted its report last month and based on this, 40 per cent of the syllabus had been cut, he said.
The state government had on May 12 formed the committee under the leadership of Commissioner of School Education Sigy Thomas Vaidhyan to evaluate and recommend the way forward for school education amid the pandemic.
Among the issues assigned to this committee was to evaluate the problems in teaching due to early closure of schools this year, delay in beginning the academic year and how to make good the loss of time due to this delay.
Schools and other educational institutions have remained closed since March this year. The Minister said students of government and government-aided schools could get their doubts in the subjects cleared through Kalvi Television for six hours on Saturdays.
Speaking to reporters at Nambiyur in Gobichettipalayam after launching developmental projects for Rs 2.40 crore, Sengottaiyan said the revised State Board syllabus would help students to face any type of competitive examination conducted by the Central government. He said that in the recently-held National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), 90 per cent of the 180 questions asked in the NEET this year were from Tamil Nadu State Board books.
