CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government has released the reduced syllabus for Class 9 students in both English and Tamil medium on Monday. The syllabus reduction was entrusted to the State Council for Education Research and Training (SCERT), which had formed an 18-member committee to complete the task.
About a third of the syllabus has been earmarked as "optional" and the rest as "priority syllabus". Students will be tested only on the priority syllabus and teachers can teach the rest if they find time.
About a week ago, the government released the shortened syllabus for Class 10 and 12 students. Schools were reopened for students in these classes shortly after.
Meanwhile, senior government officials from the School Education Department met with top ministers on Monday to discuss if schools can be reopened for students in Classes 9 and 11 as well. Sources told The New Indian Express that the government was mulling conducting a public consultation to permit schools to reopen from February 1 for students in these classes as well.
"Logistically it might be very hard to conduct public exams for Class 11 students also. However, we will allow students to come to school if the public seems comfortable," an official from the School Education Department said. He explained that students would miss out on a lot of the syllabus which would be useful to crack competitive exams and in higher education. "So if parents are comfortable, we may open schools on a voluntary basis," he said.