In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education (TSBIE) has reduced its syllabus for the academic year 2020-21 by 30 percent. Officials said that they took the decision as several working days have already been lost due to the situation arising out of the pandemic. The TSBIE had earlier constituted a committee, comprising a team of experts, which had recommended reducing the syllabus across several streams like Science and Arts.
"The syllabus for all the streams was reduced by 30% as per the expert committee’s recommendations for both first and second year students. The committee has taken the time left this academic year and the pandemic into consideration," said a public relations official from the TSBIE.
The official also said that the reduction in syllabus would not affect the students who are appearing for exams such as the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main and National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) as the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has also reduced the syllabus. National entrance and eligibility tests consider the CBSE’s syllabus while preparing their question papers.
As per TSBIE's academic calendar for the year 2020-21, students could have around 182 working days, with the academic year ending by April 16, 2021. According to sources, the same has been communicated to all affiliated colleges.
Government-run colleges have already started conducting online classes through Doordarshan and T-SAT network channels.
The CBSE had earlier reduced 30% of its syllabus for the academic year 2020-21 to reduce the workload on students, given the situation due to the pandemic.
The Telangana government had earlier declared all Class 10 and Intermediate students as passed as exams could not be held due to the pandemic. With the move, over 5 lakh students in Class 10 and 1.47 lakh Intermediate students had benefited. Grades were given based on internal assessments carried out by the schools and colleges.