KOCHI: Over a period of time CBSE schools in Kerala had tried various strategies to take the burden of books off the shoulders of students, but the best way to realize the idea is to make the syllabus thinner, said school managers.The Union minister for human resource development had stated in September that national council of educational research and training ( NCERT ) is working on rationalizing the curriculum, which will be applicable to schools affiliated to central board of secondary education (CBSE) and state boards that follow their syllabus. The minister had said there would be 10-15% reduction in syllabus from the next academic year.“We are generally supportive of the new guidelines except those on homework for students in classes I-II. As of now students have a heavy load as the syllabus is huge. The weight of books would reduce significantly if the curriculum is rationalized,” said president of Kerala CBSE School Managements Association TPM Ibrahim Khan.School managers are of the view that private publishers tend to make the books bulky so that they can charge a hefty price. “There is lot of competition among players and they keep on adding stuff to books to show that it’s up-to-date and useful,” he said.CBSE had brought out a circular last year saying that all schools should prescribe textbooks brought out by CBSE but later this was diluted and schools were given the freedom to choose books by private publishers, except higher classes.Principal of Bhavan’s Vidya Mandir, Elamakkara, Girija T S said that we should also factor in the weight of bag, lunch box and water bottle. “Some bags used by students in lower classes are quite heavy,” she said.To reduce dependence on books, some schools changed subjects like computer science into practical modules. The increased use of smart classrooms for imparting audio-visual lessons have helped them reduce the weight of bags.“We have already done a lot to mitigate the issue of heavy bags. There is a growing awareness among parents and teachers that textbooks need not be the be-all and end-all,” said Lakshmi Ramachandran, mentor, Global Public School. She added that syllabus load should not be brought down. “There are a lot of redundancies. There are units that need not be covered. I would say we have not used the freedom the system has allowed us,” said Ramachandran. Schools can reduce dependence on books if they do curriculum mapping, she said adding that the syllabus need not be reduced. “Children can handle it. We should not underestimate them,” she said.

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