NEW DELHI: To strengthen the education system, the curriculum of all schools across the country should reduce by 50 per cent, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia observed at the 65th Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) meeting on Monday.

The meeting was chaired by Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar and attended by education ministers of different states.

Sisodia, who is in-charge of the Delhi education department, lauded the Centre for focusing on 'learning outcomes' across the country, but, at the same time, criticised that learning outcomes cannot be achieved by merely drawing up lists of outcomes.

He said that working with learning outcomes in Delhi helped him identify the barriers in achieving them, which include stress on teachers for completing syllabus and shortcomings in testing methods.

"As long as the sword of syllabus completion hangs over the teachers, they can never shift their attention to learning outcomes," Sisodia said.

He called on the National Council of Educational Reserach and Training, Central Board of Secondary Education and state governments to promptly reduce syllabus in all subjects by 50 per cent.

"We should move from designing question papers that test rote learning to those that test defined learning outcomes," Sisodia said, adding that question papers in Delhi have undergone many changes.

He appealed to the Central and state education ministers that if learning outcomes are to be focused on, syllabi should be halved and question papers should be transformed.

Sisodia further talked about the role of education in fighting terrorism.

"The time has come when all education ministers put their heads together to assure the country that they will bring the solution of terrorism through education. We will bring the solution to terrorism and global warming through education," he said.