As schools reopened in Chennai from January 19 for Classes 10 and 12, the School Education Department had already reduced the syllabus by almost 40 per cent. According to news reports, the syllabus is likely to be further reduced by 50 per cent. This decision was made because of the performance of students in government and government-aided schools in the initial learning level assessment test had been poor.
Senior officials told news organisations that assessment tests were held and those were based on portions in their textbooks. "However, most of the schools reported that students could not clear the test since they did not have online classes," the official added. Though most private institutions held online classes, government school students could not be part of such sessions. However, a few self-financing schools also reported students’ poor performance. Stating that the assessments test had over 100 MCQs on all subjects, the official told DT Next, "a few students couldn’t even clear five questions."
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After the syllabus deduction, extra classes will be organised in government schools to help students before the board exams. Officials claimed that a few government schools were yet to conduct assessment tests due to server issues and once all schools completed the tests, students’ performance would be assessed again.
Recently, the Tamil Nadu government released the reduced syllabus for Class 9 students in both English and Tamil medium. The syllabus reduction had been conducted by the State Council for Education Research and Training (SCERT), for which it had formed an 18-member committee. More than 30 per cent of the syllabus has been earmarked as "optional" and the rest as "priority syllabus". Students will now be tested only on the priority syllabus and teachers can teach the rest if they find the time.
