CBSE Syllabus for Class 11 Arts

CBSE Board

CBSE or the Central Board of Secondary Education is one of India’s premier boards of education.  The textbooks and syllabi for the CBSE board are meticulously designed and prepared by NCERT or the National Council of Educational Research and Training.

CBSE Syllabus for Class 11 Arts

In Class 11, students can opt for subjects and streams of their choice.  This may also depend on their prior academic performance.  Although there is an overemphasis on the science stream for decades together in India, the interest in arts and the arts stream is slowly increasing.  The CBSE board has tried to incorporate a variety of subjects in order to help students explore the arts stream in an enjoyable and proficient manner.  The CBSE syllabus for class 11 arts and the art subjects available for study also depend on the school in which the student is studying. 

The subjects that are available for class 11 arts as per the CBSE syllabus are wide.  They include subjects like economics, political science, geography, psychology, sociology and philosophy.  Other subjects include creative writing and translation studies, physical education, fashion studies, fine arts, music, dance, heritage craft, graphic design, mass media studies, theatre studies, etc.  Thus, the syllabus incorporates a wide range which helps students who are passionate about arts subjects to pursue subjects which they are interested in.  

Let us look at an example of how the CBSE arts syllabus is incorporated in class 11 in some CBSE schools:

Compulsory subjects: English core, History/Hindi, Geography/Political Science, Economics/Psychology/Sociology.

Elective 1:  Maths/Informatics/Home Science/Painting

Elective II:  Physical Education/Fashion Studies/Music/Entrepreneurship

We can thus see that the CBSE syllabus allows students and CBSE schools adequate flexibility to provide a good arts education at the senior secondary level.  Students who are interested in a career in the civil services can choose the arts stream with subjects like political science, mathematics and entrepreneurship.  Students, who are keen on pursuing a fine arts career such as in music, fashion studies, etc, can also opt for subjects provided as per the CBSE syllabus and the school they are studying in.  Thus, we can see that the CBSE board and syllabus allows arts students a good choice of subjects to pursue their passions.