Union Minister for Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar has announced that the syllabus followed by all NCERT schools will be reduced by half from the next 2019 academic session onwards.
Javadekar said that the current academic syllabus prescribed by NCERT is bigger than that followed by undergraduate science and commerce streams, which leaves less time for extra-curricular activities of students and hinders their all-round development.
The minister also explained that in order to make students focus and healthily compete for success, schools will be asked to introduce regular examinations and detentions as practiced by several developed countries.
Javadekar said that these provisions will be applicable to students of classes I to XII and the government will possibly introduce a bill in the later half of the ongoing Budget Session of the Parliament to give effect to this policy.
The Rajya Sabha MP also expressed concerns over poor quality of teachers present in schools and colleges across the country. He claimed that only 5 lakh teachers out of the 20 lakh trained by the government in 2015 can be eligible to teach under the Right to Education Act. He also said that 14 lakh teachers are currently undergoing skill upgradation programmes and this should lead to better results in the future.