Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE)
The official CTET September 2026 syllabus has five compulsory sections in Paper I and four compulsory parts in Paper II, including one 60-question subject option. Paper I covers Child Development and Pedagogy, Mathematics, Environmental Studies, Language I and Language II. Paper II covers Child Development and Pedagogy, two languages, and either Mathematics and Science or Social Studies/Social Science. The official bulletin gives section and some content-pedagogy allocations, but it does not give chapter-wise marks for individual topics.
Direct answer: Use Appendix I of the CTET September 2026 Information Bulletin as the official syllabus PDF. Paper I is for Classes I-V. Paper II is for Classes VI-VIII. A candidate seeking eligibility for both levels must appear in both papers.
Source checked: 22 August 2026. No exact check time is claimed.
Each question is a multiple-choice question with four alternatives and one most appropriate answer. A correct answer carries 1 mark, and there is no negative marking. For the complete counts, duration and marking comparison, read the CTET exam pattern →.
The bulletin connects the syllabus to the school stage instead of presenting it as a collection of isolated competitive-exam chapters. Paper I subject questions use topics prescribed in the NCERT syllabus for Classes I-V. Their difficulty standard and linkages may extend up to the secondary stage. Paper II subject questions use topics prescribed in the NCERT syllabus for Classes VI-VIII, while their difficulty standard and linkages may extend up to the senior secondary stage.
That distinction matters. The content base tells you which school-stage concepts to cover. The stated difficulty and linkages warn that a question may ask you to connect, apply or reason with those concepts at a higher level. The bulletin also directs candidates to NCERT syllabi and textbooks for the detailed Classes I-VIII curriculum.
Pedagogy is part of the tested syllabus, not an optional teaching-theory add-on. Mathematics, EVS, Science, Social Studies and both language sections include questions about learning, classroom practice, assessment, errors, resources or remedial teaching. Memorising topic names alone does not cover the official scope.
Paper I has five compulsory 30-question sections. The official Appendix I gives the following internal allocations.
Paper I Child Development and Pedagogy is framed around children aged 6-11. The 15-question Child Development part includes the relationship between development and learning, principles of child development, heredity and environment, socialisation through teachers, parents and peers, and the ideas of Piaget, Kohlberg and Vygotsky. It also covers child-centred and progressive education, intelligence and multidimensional intelligence, language and thought, gender, individual differences, assessment for and of learning, school-based assessment, and questions that assess readiness, critical thinking and achievement.
The 5-question inclusive-education part addresses learners from disadvantaged or deprived backgrounds, children with learning difficulties or impairments, and talented, creative or specially abled learners. The 10-question Learning and Pedagogy part covers how children think and learn, reasons for difficulty or failure in school performance, teaching-learning processes, learning as a social activity, children as problem solvers, errors as meaningful steps in learning, cognition, emotions, motivation, and personal or environmental factors in learning.
The Paper I Mathematics content list covers geometry, shapes and spatial understanding, solids around us, numbers, addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, measurement, weight, time, volume, data handling, patterns and money. These are broad syllabus divisions, not official promises of a fixed question count for each chapter.
The pedagogy half covers the nature of Mathematics and logical thinking, children's reasoning and meaning-making strategies, the place and language of Mathematics in the curriculum, community Mathematics, formal and informal evaluation, teaching problems, error analysis, and diagnostic and remedial teaching. The bulletin says these questions focus on concepts, problem-solving ability, pedagogical understanding and classroom application.
Paper I EVS content is organised under familiar primary-stage themes. Family and Friends includes relationships, work and play, animals and plants. The remaining themes are Food, Shelter, Water, Travel, and Things We Make and Do.
EVS pedagogy covers the concept and scope of EVS, integrated EVS, environmental studies and environmental education, learning principles, links with Science and Social Science, approaches to presenting concepts, activities, practical work and experiments, discussion, continuous and comprehensive evaluation, teaching aids and teaching problems. The official 15-plus-15 split is between content and pedagogy. It is not a separate mark allocation for Food, Water, Travel or any other individual theme.
Language I focuses on proficiency connected with the medium of instruction. Its comprehension part uses two unseen passages: one prose or drama passage and one poem. Questions may test comprehension, inference, grammar and verbal ability. The prose may be literary, scientific, narrative or discursive.
Language II focuses on language elements, communication and comprehension. Its comprehension part uses two unseen prose passages that may be discursive, literary, narrative or scientific, with questions on comprehension, grammar and verbal ability.
Both language-pedagogy parts cover learning and acquisition, principles of language teaching, listening and speaking, language as a tool, the role of grammar in communicating ideas, difficulties and errors in a diverse classroom, language skills, assessment of speaking, listening, reading and writing, textbooks and multimedia or multilingual classroom resources, and remedial teaching.
Paper II has three common 30-question sections and one 60-question subject block. Mathematics and Science is for Mathematics or Science teachers. Social Studies/Social Science is for teachers of those subjects. A candidate in another teaching category chooses either block as allowed by the bulletin.
Paper II Child Development and Pedagogy uses the same three-part 15-plus-5-plus-10 structure as Paper I, but it is relevant to learners aged 11-14. The scope includes development and learning, heredity and environment, socialisation, major developmental perspectives, intelligence, language and thought, gender, diversity, assessment, inclusion, special needs, how children learn, classroom and social contexts, errors, cognition, emotions, motivation and factors affecting learning. Prepare these ideas for the elementary-school age group rather than treating the Paper I and Paper II context as identical.
Paper II Mathematics content starts with the Number System: knowing and playing with numbers, whole numbers, negative numbers and integers, and fractions. Algebra includes an introduction to algebra plus ratio and proportion. Geometry includes basic two-dimensional ideas, elementary two-dimensional and three-dimensional shapes, reflection symmetry, and construction with a straight-edge scale, protractor and compasses. Mensuration and data handling complete the listed content scope.
Mathematics pedagogy covers the nature of Mathematics and logical thinking, its place and language in the curriculum, community Mathematics, evaluation, remedial teaching and teaching problems. The section tests more than calculation. The bulletin expressly includes concepts, problem solving, pedagogical understanding and applications.
Science content covers Food, including sources, components and cleaning of food; materials of daily use; the world of the living; moving things, people and ideas; how things work, including electric current, circuits and magnets; natural phenomena; and natural resources.
Science pedagogy includes the nature and structure of science, aims and objectives of natural science, understanding and appreciating science, integrated approaches, observation, experiment and discovery, innovation, teaching materials and aids, cognitive, psychomotor and affective evaluation, teaching problems, and remedial teaching. Mathematics and Science carry 30 questions each within this option. The bulletin does not divide those 30 questions into fixed marks for integers, geometry, food, magnets or another named chapter beyond the stated content-pedagogy split.
The 40-question content part spans History, Geography, and Social and Political Life. History begins with when, where and how, earliest societies, first farmers and herders, first cities, early states, new ideas and the first empire. It continues through contacts with distant lands, political developments, culture and science, new kings and kingdoms, the Delhi Sultans, architecture, creation of an empire, social change and regional cultures. Modern themes include Company power, rural society, colonialism and tribal societies, the Revolt of 1857-58, women and reform, challenges to caste, the nationalist movement and India after Independence.
Geography covers the subject as social study and science, Earth in the solar system, the globe, natural and human environments, air, water, settlement, transport and communication, natural and human resources, and agriculture. Social and Political Life covers diversity, government, local government, livelihoods, democracy, state government, media, gender, the Constitution, parliamentary government, the judiciary, social justice and marginalisation.
The 20-question pedagogy part covers the concept and nature of Social Science or Social Studies, classroom processes and discourse, critical thinking, enquiry and empirical evidence, teaching problems, primary and secondary sources, project work and evaluation. The official 40-plus-20 allocation does not assign a fixed number of questions to History, Geography, the Constitution or any other chapter.
The bulletin gives a useful reading of what each section is meant to test.
Do not reduce the syllabus to a list of formulas or facts. A substantial part of the official allocation asks how a child learns, why an error occurs, how an idea should be taught, which resource fits a classroom need, or how learning should be assessed.
Language II must be different from Language I. Candidates choose one available language as Language I and another as Language II and specify them on the confirmation page. The public notice states that CTET is conducted in 27 languages. The bulletin lists English, Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Garo, Gujarati, Kannada, Khasi, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Mizo, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Tibetan, Urdu, Bodo, Dogri, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Santhali and Sindhi.
The main question paper is bilingual in Hindi and English. That rule does not make Language I and Language II interchangeable. The two selected language sections have different stated purposes, and the second selection cannot repeat the first. Check the confirmation page rather than relying on a remembered application choice.
The official bulletin supports the paper totals, section totals and the internal allocations shown in the tables above. These include the 15-5-10 split in Child Development and Pedagogy, the content-pedagogy splits, the 30-plus-30 division of Mathematics and Science, and the 40-plus-20 division of Social Studies/Social Science.
It does not publish a chapter-wise forecast such as a guaranteed number of questions from Piaget, fractions, water, magnets, the Constitution or the nationalist movement. It also does not authorise a coaching site's trend table as the official 2026 weightage. Previous papers can show what CBSE asked in earlier sessions, but they cannot promise the chapter distribution of the September 2026 paper.
Use the official section allocations to plan coverage. Use previous papers to understand wording, application and recurring forms of reasoning. Do not convert a historical pattern into an invented chapter guarantee.
This guide summarises the official appendix so candidates can scan it. It does not replace the bulletin, NCERT curriculum documents or a later CBSE notice. No coaching page, search snippet or third-party chapter-weight table was used as authority.
Download Syllabus
Official PDF
Official Website
ctet.nic.in/
