Inter syllabus all set for overhaul.

Intermediate syllabus is in for a complete overhaul for the coming academic year. Board of Intermediate Education (BIE) on Monday decided to make major changes to its first and second year syllabi for textbooks more suitable to national level competitive examinations. The revised syllabi for the intermediate course will be effective from 2012-’13 for first-year students and from 2013-’14 for those in their second year.

Following a meeting held in the city, BIE has given orders initiating revision of syllabi in mathematics, physics, chemistry, botany and zoology. The revision has come after a gap of five years, officials said. Orders were given on Monday to develop syllabi conforming to National Core Curriculum guidelines proposed by the central government. As part of this exercise, the state will be adopting the NCERT pattern to compose textbooks

The board is yet to develop content for the textbooks to be introduced from the coming academic year. BIE will also be conducting a three-day content development workshop based on the new syllabi in December.

The board will enlist the assistance of national-level subject experts, university professors and lecturers from degree and junior colleges. The content is expected to be finalised by January 31, 2011 and the books printed soon after, officials said. The changes would see students having to study a little more than what they have been handling so far.

“NCERT has several sections, especially in Zoology and Botany, which are not currently part of intermediate syllabus. With National Eligibility and Entrance Test looming large for medical aspirants, the syllabus revision is welcome,” said a senior lecturer from Narayana Junior College.

Government junior college lecturers’ association, too, has welcomed the decision to change the intermediate syllabus as this might also help students preparing for other competitive examinations.

“There are several students from AP who appear for tests like IIT-JEE, which are based on NCERT texts. The change in curriculum will help students from the state to crack these exams,” said Madhusudan Reddy, general secretary of the lecturers’ body. Intermediate students in the city said that the proposed change will reduce the academic burden on them.

“Now, most students have to study two syllabi, state and central, in order to do well in the intermediate and competitive national level exams. Most of our seniors used to concentrate on the national level examinations till the last minute and resort to cramming for the IPE syllabus with intermediates round the corner.

“It will be easier for us as we would have to study one syllabus for both boards and IIT-JEE, AIEEE and NEET,” said class X student Srilakshmi Damodar.

Source : The Times of India