Higher Secondary is the most crucial stage of school education because at this juncture specialized discipline based, content -oriented courses are introduced. Students reach this stage after 10 years of general education and opt for Chemistry with a purpose of pursuing their career in basic sciences or professional courses like medicine, engineering, technology and study courses in applied areas of science and technology at tertiary level. Therefore, there is a need to provide learners with sufficient conceptual background of Chemistry, which will make them competent to meet the challenges of academic and professional courses after the senior secondary stage.

 

The new and updated curriculum is based on disciplinary approach with rigour and depth taking care that the syllabus is not heavy and at the same time it is comparable to the international level. The knowledge related to the subject of Chemistry has undergone tremendous changes during the past one decade. Many new areas like synthetic materials, bio -molecules, natural resources, industrial chemistry are coming in a big way and deserve to be an integral part of chemistry syllabus at senior secondary stage. At international level, new formulations and nomenclature of elements and compounds, symbols and units of physical quantities floated by scientific bodies like IUPAC and CGPM are of immense importance and need to be incorporated in the updated syllabus. The revised syllabus takes care of all these aspects. Greater emphasis has been laid on use of new nomenclature, symbols and formulations,teaching of fundamental concepts, application of concepts in chemistry to industry/ technology, logical sequencing of units, removal of obsolete content and repetition, etc.

 

The curriculum of Chemistry at Senior Secondary Stage aims to: