School syllabus to get a 50 per cent cut from academic session 2019-20

NEW DELHI, AUGUST 7: With an objective to promote sports in the country, Union Sports Minister, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore yesterday announced that the school students will now have as much as 50 per cent reduction in their syllabus, so that they can concentrate on sports. Even as every school will have a mandatory games period, he stated.

“We have come to a stage where sports is not a part of education, but itself an education. The Education Ministry is ensuring that the school syllabus will be reduced by 50 per cent from 2019 onwards along with inducting sports period on a regular basis,” the Union Sports Minister said.

Rathore further mentioned that the Sports Ministry in planning up several things to make sports more relevant right from the school.

The question mark

The big question which arises over this announcement is whether 50% reduction in school-syllabus is justifiable?

How much time one mandatory game period would be taking, that the education ministry is planning to slash-down the syllabus by just half.

Won’t the promotion of sports at school level affect the school education quality?

Facts & Figures

As per the National Curriculum Framework (NCF), 2005, Health and Physical Education, which includes sports, is a compulsory subject from classes 1 to 10 and an optional subject at the Higher Secondary level.

The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has developed syllabi on Health and Physical Education, which outlines class-wise games and sports for students.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has made it obligatory for its affiliated schools to have adequate infrastructure for sports. CBSE has also advised its affiliated schools to allocate 40-45 minutes of physical activities and games for students of Classes 1 to 10 every day and at least two periods per week (90 to 120 minutes) for students of Classes 11 to 12.

However, education being a subject in the Concurrent List and most of the schools being under the purview of the State/Union Territory Governments, it is for the States/UTs to take necessary action in this regard.

Further, India is about to have 20 specialized sports schools with a government fund backing of Rs. 7-10 crore each for these schools.