The Central Board of Secondary Education on Tuesday said that it will reduce the syllabus for Class nine to Class 12 for the academic year 2020-’21 by up to 30% amid the coronavirus crisis. Schools and colleges in India were closed for more than a week before the imposition of the nationwide lockdown on March 25.

CBSE said that the syllabus for schools has been revised because of the “extraordinary situation” prevailing in India and other parts of the world. “Considering the importance of achieving the level of learning, the syllabus has been rationalised to the extent possible by retaining core concepts,” the board said in a circular.

CBSE added that the revised syllabus will not be part of the topics for internal assessment and the year-end board exams.

Minister of Human Resource Development Ramesh Pokhriyal said that the Centre had asked educationists for suggestions on how to reduce the burden on students. “I am glad to share that we received more than 1.5K suggestions,” he tweeted. “Thank you, everyone, for the overwhelming response.”

Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations or ICSE had also announced syllabus revisions for all major subjects for classes nine to 12 last week. Last month, the Centre had told the Supreme Court that it will cancel the pending board examinations for class 10 and 12, which were scheduled to take place in July.

Educational institutions in India have switched to online classes amid a surge in coronavirus cases. They will remain closed till July 31.

India is now the third worst coronavirus-hit country in the world. The country’s coronavirus tally rose to 7,19,665 on Tuesday, with 22,252 new cases in 24 hours. The toll went up by 467 to 20,160.