The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) on September 25 issued a clarification on the draft school syllabus, stating that the curriculum under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE) 2023 is intended to be understood through curricular goals, competencies and learning outcomes, rather than simply by counting textbook chapters.
The clarification comes amid discussion around the draft Class 9 Mathematics syllabus, particularly questions over whether certain topics had been removed. NCERT said that no overall topics were dropped from the draft syllabus. Instead, some concepts were incorporated into other chapters rather than being retained as standalone chapters.
According to NCERT, concepts related to 'Lines and Angles', which already had a dedicated chapter in the earlier Grade 6 mathematics textbook, have been incorporated into the Class 9 Part 2 chapters on 'Propositions and Their Converses' and 'Quadrilaterals'.
Similarly, concepts related to 'Euclidean geometry' have been distributed across Chapters 5, 6, 9, 12 and 13 of the Class 9 mathematics textbook.
NCERT said that following consultation and feedback from teachers and educators, it decided against retaining the traditional abstract 'axiom-theorem-proof' chapter on Euclidean geometry as a standalone unit. Instead, students will explore the underlying concepts and their applications across different chapters.
The draft syllabus itself was released as an initial proposal for feedback from teachers, students and authors/educators. NCERT said the draft will be finalised and released in October by NCERT/CBSE, according to the clarification.
One of the notable changes highlighted by NCERT is the inclusion of a chapter on algorithms.
The council said the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) has increased the importance of students understanding mathematical ideas behind algorithms, data structures and running-time efficiency.
NCERT said that computational thinking is becoming increasingly important and that students should be introduced to the mathematical concepts underlying AI through their mathematics classes. This, it said, was the reason for considering algorithms an important component of Grade 9 Mathematics.
For students and teachers, the latest clarification means that the apparent absence of a topic as a separate chapter should not automatically be interpreted as its removal from the curriculum. NCERT's explanation indicates that concepts may instead be integrated into other chapters to support a competency-based approach to learning.
The September 25 clarification is particularly relevant as schools and teachers prepare for the implementation of the new Grade 9 curriculum and textbooks.
