Nellore: Teachers for cut in syllabus to suit slashed academic year

Nellore: With a lot of precious time lost as far as the academic year is concerned due to Covid lockdown, a few of the experienced teachers express doubts over completion of the syllabus as per the new academic calendar unless revising the syllabus to suit to the new guidelines in teaching patterns.

With no option to confront the plans of the Education Department for restarting the educational activity, the teachers are adopting wait- and-watch policy till the completion of SSC examinations.

In normal situations, schools reopen in mid-June. This gives ample time for teachers to complete syllabus for higher classes like 9 and 10 by the end of January. But, this time classes are scheduled to tentatively being from August, which means loss of first quarter. This means that teachers need additional two months to complete the syllabus.

Of the six subjects -- English, Hindi, Telugu, Biology, Physics and Mathematics, teachers find it tough to cover Physics, Mathematics and English. Of all classes, teachers have no opportunity to skip any of the portion of the syllabus for class 10 keeping in the public examination in view.

"We cannot skip topics from the crucial subjects and hence the majority of teachers opine that the Government should consider revising the vast syllabus for completing within the stipulated time. Otherwise, teachers would face a difficult situation. Before the start of the new academic year, the Education department can do the exercise," suggested a senior headmaster.

"In fact, managing student strength, running classes on alternate days following social distancing norms have an impact on the completion of the syllabus. So, the Government should form an Expert Committee on all these aspects not confining to the plans for implementation of the Covid-19 protocols in the schools," he added.

A teachers' union leader said that the guidelines issued by the Commissioner of School Education to maintain schools as per Covid protocols are acceptable for now and there would be chances for changes depending on the number of cases registered in future.

He also suspects the possibility of cases due to the SSC examinations and it is better to take the final decision only after completion of the examinations. He maintained that there would not be much impact on the Government-run schools in rural schools since the strength is manageable according to the guidelines.