Uttarakhand high school students will lose their liberty to study five subjects for class 10 board examination from the next academic session. The State government has decided to make 10 subjects compulsory for high school classes of the state board in tune with National Education Policy (NEP).

Officials in the state school education department informed that the Dhami government has decided to increase compulsory subjects for 9th and 10th standards from the current five to ten. The decision was taken in view of the government’s move to adopt provisions of NEP in totality. Earlier, only NCERT books were adopted by the Uttarakhand State.

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A department official informed that the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), responsible for preparing school curriculum for Uttarakhand State Education Board(USEB), has readied its new framework of the subjects to be offered to the high school classes affiliated with the board.

According to the SCERT’s new curriculum framework, now 10 subjects will be compulsory in 10th standard of the state board. The new curriculum framework prepared, towing down to the provisions of National Curriculum Framework under the National Education Policy 2020, will be sent to the state government for its ratification. It will be implemented after the state government formally gives its nod on the proposal sent by the SCERT.

According to the new curriculum framework, children studying in USEB afiliated schools will not have the choice of picking any five subjects offered by the board.
The option to study the subjects of their choice will now be available to them from higher secondary class 11.

According to department officials, the draft also carries the details as to the teaching time for each subject in accordance with the guidelines of the NEP. The curriculum
framework draft incorporates an annual teaching time of 70 hours each for three languages in high school. Apart from this, 135 hours teaching time has been fixed each for mathematics and science as well.

Subjects to be offered in the new SCERT curriculum framework for the students of 9th and 10th standards under USEB are — three languages, two of which will be Indian languages. Other subjects include Mathematics and Computational Thinking, Social Science, Sciences, Art, Physical Education and Fitness, Vocational Education and Interdisciplinary Education.

SCERT Additional Director Pradeep Rawat said the decision to incorporate more subjects in the new curriculum framework for 9th and 10th standards has been taken to meet mandatory guidelines of the NEP.

He said subjects included in the curriculum framework were recommended by NEP. According to the SCERT director, the draft of the new curriculum will be presented to the government through various committees.