Central Board of Secondary Education has released the syllabus and subject combination for Class 11 and 12 for the academic year 2021-22. Candidates can access the official syllabus on the website cbseacademic.nic.in or cbse.nic.in. On the official websites, students can access the curriculum for secondary and senior secondary education, and the list of languages and academic electives for the upcoming academic year. The curriculum states that the Class 11 and 12 syllabi are a composite course. Hence, candidates are instructed to choose the subjects which they intend to study in Class 12 as well.
The curriculum for Class 11 and 12 has been divided into three sections – compulsory subjects, additional (optional) subjects and subjects for internal assessments. There are a total of five compulsory or main subjects that students have to study during the 2-year academic session. The additional elective subject opted by students can either be a language elective or any other elective.
Candidates opting for 6 subjects (five elective and one additional) have to be evaluated by the school authorities on the basis of the institution in which they want to seek admission in the future. However, if they fail in one of the first five subjects, the sixth subject shall replace the failed one for evaluation.
The first subject can be Hindi Elective, Hindi Core, English Elective or English Core. The second subject is a choice of anyone language from the list given by the education board apart from the one opted for the first subject. If not language, students can also opt for an elective subject from the list provided by the education board. For subjects 3, 4 and 5, candidates can choose from either the list of academic electives or skills electives. These again are mentioned in the curriculum published by CBSE.
Subject 6 is an optional subject which can either be an elective or language apart from the ones already selected as compulsory subjects. Subjects 7, 8 and 9 are meant for internal assessments only and have to be opted for by all regular students. These subjects comprise of Work Experience, Health and Physical Education and General Studies. However, Work Experience has been included in the Health and Physical Education subject.
CBSE has also specified certain instructions to be followed by students while choosing their subjects. Accordingly, Hindi or English must be one of the two subjects opted by students for Class 11 and 12. Moreover, students can opt for both subjects simultaneously as part of their curriculum.
Two courses each, have been offered to students for both Hindi and English i.e., core and elective. This is done keeping in mind the differing backgrounds and circumstances of students. However, students are not permitted to choose both Core and Elective courses for the same language as part of their curriculum. According to the study scheme prescribed by CBSE, students can opt for any combination of subjects without following any particular stream. Thus, schools are also instructed to abide by this scheme.
