CTET Syllabus 2026: Paper-wise Breakdown, Exam Pattern

Particulars

CTET Paper 1 Highlights

CTET Paper 2 Highlights

Exam mode

Offline

Number of subjects/sections

5

4

Names of subjects

• Child Development and Pedagogy
• Language-I
• Language-II
• Mathematics
• Environmental Studies

• Child Development and Pedagogy
• Language-I
• Language-II
• Mathematics and Science or Social Studies/Social Science

Duration of exam

2 hours 30 minutes

Total questions

150

Type of questions

Multiple-Choice Questions (MCQs); 4 options with only 1 correct option

Total marks

150

Marking scheme

+1 for a correct answer, 0 for incorrect answer

Language of CTET question paper

English and Hindi (candidates can write the paper in either of the languages)

CTET Subjects

CTET Important Topics

Child Development and Pedagogy

Child Development, Learning and Pedagogy

Language-I

Comprehension, Pedagogy of Language Development

Language-II

Comprehension, Pedagogy of Language Development

Mathematics

Geometry, Shapes & Spatial Understanding, Solids around Us, Numbers, Addition and Subtraction, Multiplication, Division

Environmental Studies

Family and Friends, Food, Shelter, Water, Travel

CTET Subjects/Units

Topics

Child Development (Primary School Child)

(15 MCQs)

• Concept of development and its relationship with learning

• Principles of the development of children

• Influence of Heredity & Environment

• Socialization processes: Social world & children (Teacher, Parents, Peers)

• Piaget, Kohlberg and Vygotsky: constructs and critical perspectives

• Concepts of child-centred and progressive education

• Critical perspective of the construct of Intelligence

• Multi-Dimensional Intelligence

• Language & Thought

• Gender as a social construct; gender roles, gender-bias and educational practice

• Individual differences among learners, understanding differences based on diversity of language, caste, gender, community, religion etc.

• Distinction between Assessment for learning and assessment of learning;

• School-Based Assessment, Continuous & Comprehensive Evaluation: perspective and practice

• Formulating appropriate questions for assessing readiness levels of learners; enhancing learning and critical thinking in the classroom and for assessing learner achievement.

Concept of Inclusive Education and Understanding Children with Special Needs

(5 MCQs)

• Addressing learners from diverse backgrounds including disadvantaged and deprived

• Addressing the needs of children with learning difficulties, ‘impairment’ etc.

• Addressing the Talented, Creative, Specially abled Learners

Learning and Pedagogy

(10 MCQs)

• How children think and learn; how and why children ‘fail’ to achieve success in school performance.

• Basic processes of teaching and learning; children’s strategies of learning; learning as a social activity; social context of learning.

• Child as a problem solver and a ‘scientific investigator’

• Alternative conceptions of learning in children, understanding children’s ‘errors’ as significant steps in the learning process.

• Cognition & Emotions

• Motivation and learning

• Factors contributing to learning – personal & environmental

CTET Subjects/Units

Topics

Language Comprehension

(15 MCQs)

Reading unseen passages – two passages one prose or drama and one poem

Questions will be from comprehension, inference, grammar and verbal ability

(Prose passage may be literary, scientific, narrative or discursive)

Pedagogy of Language Development

(15 MCQs)

• Learning and acquisition

• Principles of language Teaching

• Role of listening and speaking; function of language and how children use it as a tool

• Critical perspective on the role of grammar in learning a language for communicating ideas verbally and in written form

• Challenges of teaching language in a diverse classroom; language difficulties, errors and disorders

• Language Skills

• Evaluating language comprehension and proficiency: speaking, listening, reading and writing

• Teaching- learning materials: Textbook, multi-media materials, multilingual resource of the classroom

• Remedial Teaching

CTET Subjects/Units

Topics

Language Comprehension

(15 MCQs)

Two unseen prose passages (discursive or literary or narrative or scientific)

Questions on comprehension, grammar and verbal ability

Pedagogy of Language Development

(15 MCQs)

• Learning and acquisition

• Principles of language Teaching

• Role of listening and speaking; function of language and how children use it as a tool

• Critical perspective on the role of grammar in learning a language for communicating ideas verbally and in written form;

• Challenges of teaching language in a diverse classroom; language difficulties, errors and disorders

• Language Skills

• Evaluating language comprehension and proficiency: speaking, listening, reading and writing

• Teaching – learning materials: Textbook, multimedia materials, multilingual resources of the classroom

• Remedial Teaching

CTET Subjects/Units

Topics

Content

(15 MCQs)

• Geometry

• Shapes & Spatial Understanding

• Solids around Us

• Numbers

• Addition and Subtraction

• Multiplication

• Division

• Measurement

• Weight

• Time

• Volume

• Data Handling

• Patterns

• Money

Pedagogical Issues

(15 MCQs)

• Nature of Mathematics/Logical thinking; understanding children’s thinking and reasoning patterns and strategies of making meaning and learning

• Place of Mathematics in Curriculum

• Language of Mathematics

• Community Mathematics

• Evaluation through formal and informal methods

• Problems of Teaching

• Error analysis and related aspects of learning and teaching

• Diagnostic and Remedial Teaching

CTET Subjects/Units

Topics

Content

(15 MCQs)

• Family and Friends: Relationships, Work and Play, Animals, Plants

• Food

• Shelter

• Water

• Travel

• Things We Make and Do

Pedagogical Issues

(15 MCQs)

• Concept and scope of EVS

• Significance of EVS, integrated EVS

• Environmental Studies & Environmental Education

• Learning Principles

• Scope & relation to Science & Social Science

• Approaches of presenting concepts

• Activities

• Experimentation/Practical Work

• Discussion

• CCE

• Teaching material/Aids

• Problems

CTET Subjects

CTET Important Topics

Child Development and Pedagogy

Child Development, Learning and Pedagogy

Language-I

Comprehension, Pedagogy of Language Development

Language-II

Comprehension, Pedagogy of Language Development

Mathematics

Number System, Algebra, Geometry, Mensuration

Science

Food, Materials, Natural Phenomena, Natural Resources

Social Studies/Social Sciences

History, Geography, Social and Political Life, Pedagogical Issues

CTET Subjects/Units

Topics

Child Development (Elementary School Child)

(15 MCQs)

• Concept of development and its relationship with learning

• Principles of the development of children

• Influence of Heredity & Environment

• Socialization processes: Social world & children (Teacher, Parents, Peers)

• Piaget, Kohlberg and Vygotsky: constructs and critical perspectives

• Concepts of child-centred and progressive education

• Critical perspective of the construct of Intelligence

• Multi-Dimensional Intelligence

• Language & Thought

• Gender as a social construct; gender roles, gender-bias and educational practice

• Individual differences among learners, understanding differences based on diversity of language, caste, gender, community, religion etc.

• Distinction between Assessment for learning and assessment of learning;

• School-Based Assessment, Continuous & Comprehensive Evaluation;

• Assessing readiness levels of learners; enhancing learning and critical thinking in the classroom and for assessing learner achievement.

Concept of Inclusive Education and Understanding Children with Special Needs

(5 MCQs)

• Addressing learners from diverse backgrounds, including disadvantaged and deprived

• Addressing the needs of children with learning difficulties, ‘impairment’ etc.

• Addressing the talented, creative, specially-abled Learners

Learning and Pedagogy

(10 MCQs)

• How children think and learn; how and why children ‘fail’ to achieve success in school performance.

• Basic processes of teaching and learning; children’s strategies of learning; learning as a social activity; social context of learning.

• Child as a problem solver and a ‘scientific investigator’

• Alternative conceptions of learning in children, understanding children’s ‘errors’ as significant steps in the learning process.

• Cognition & Emotions

• Motivation and learning

• Factors contributing to learning – personal & environmental

CTET Subjects/Units

Topics

Language Comprehension

(15 MCQs)

Reading unseen passages – two passages one prose or drama and one poem

Questions will be from comprehension, inference, grammar and verbal ability

(Prose passage may be literary, scientific, narrative or discursive)

Pedagogy of Language Development

(15 MCQs)

• Learning and acquisition

• Principles of language Teaching

• Role of listening and speaking; function of language and how children use it as a tool

• Critical perspective on the role of grammar in learning a language for communicating ideas verbally and in written form

• Challenges of teaching language in a diverse classroom; language difficulties, errors and disorders

• Language Skills

• Evaluating language comprehension and proficiency: speaking, listening, reading and writing

• Teaching- learning materials: Textbook, multi-media materials, multilingual resource of the classroom

• Remedial Teaching

CTET Subjects/Units

Topics

Language Comprehension

(15 MCQs)

Two unseen prose passages (discursive or literary or narrative or scientific)

Questions on comprehension, grammar and verbal ability

Pedagogy of Language Development

(15 MCQs)

• Learning and acquisition

• Principles of language Teaching

• Role of listening and speaking; function of language and how children use it as a tool

• Critical perspective on the role of grammar in learning a language for communicating ideas verbally and in written form;

• Challenges of teaching language in a diverse classroom; language difficulties, errors and disorders

• Language Skills

• Evaluating language comprehension and proficiency: speaking, listening, reading and writing

• Teaching – learning materials: Textbook, multi-media materials, multilingual resource of the classroom

• Remedial Teaching

CTET Subjects/Units

Topics

Content

(20 MCQs)

• Number System

• Knowing our Numbers

• Playing with Numbers

• Whole Numbers

• Negative Numbers and Integers

• Fractions

• Algebra

• Introduction to Algebra

• Ratio and Proportion

• Geometry

• Basic geometrical ideas (2-D)

• Understanding Elementary Shapes (2-D and 3-D)

• Symmetry: (reflection)

• Construction (using Straight edge Scale, protractor, compasses)

• Mensuration

• Data handling

Pedagogical Issues

(10 MCQs)

• Nature of Mathematics/Logical thinking

• Place of Mathematics in Curriculum

• Language of Mathematics

• Community Mathematics

• Evaluation

• Remedial Teaching

• Problem of Teaching

CTET Subjects/Units

Topics

Content

(20 MCQs)

• Food

• Sources of food

• Components of food

• Cleaning food

• Materials

• Materials of daily use

• The World of the Living

• Moving Things People and Ideas

• How things work

• Electric current and circuits

• Magnets

• Natural Phenomena

• Natural Resources

Pedagogical issues

(10 MCQs)

• Nature & Structure of Sciences

• Natural Science/Aims & objectives

• Understanding & Appreciating Science

• Approaches/Integrated Approach

• Observation/Experiment/Discovery (Method of Science)

• Innovation

• Text Material/Aids

• Evaluation – cognitive/psychomotor/affective

• Problems

• Remedial Teaching

CTET Subjects/Units

Topics

Content

(40 MCQs)

History

• When, Where and How

• The Earliest Societies

• The First Farmers and Herders

• The First Cities

• Early States

• New Ideas

• The First Empire

• Contacts with Distant lands

• Political Developments

• Culture and Science

• New Kings and Kingdoms

• Sultans of Delhi

• Architecture

• Creation of an Empire

• Social Change

• Regional Cultures

• The Establishment of Company Power

• Rural Life and Society

• Colonialism and Tribal Societies

• The Revolt of 1857-58

• Women and reform

• Challenging the Caste System

• The Nationalist Movement

• India After Independence

Geography

• Geography as a social study and as a science

• Planet: Earth in the solar system

• Globe

• Environment in its totality: natural and human environment

• Air

• Water

• Human Environment: settlement, transport and communication

• Resources: Types-Natural and Human

• Agriculture

Social and Political Life

• Diversity

• Government

• Local Government

• Making a Living

• Democracy

• State Government

• Understanding Media

• Unpacking Gender

• The Constitution

• Parliamentary Government

• The Judiciary

• Social Justice and the Marginalised

Pedagogical issues

(20 MCQs)

• Concept & Nature of Social Science/Social Studies

• Class Room Processes, activities and discourse

• Developing Critical thinking

• Enquiry/Empirical Evidence

• Problems of teaching Social Science/Social Studies

• Sources – Primary & Secondary

• Projects Work

• Evaluation

Exam Detail

Paper 1 (Classes 1 to 5)

Paper 2 (Classes 6 to 8)

Mode of Exam

Offline (Pen and Paper)

Offline (Pen and Paper)

Total Questions

150

150

Total Marks

150

150

Duration

2 hours 30 minutes

2 hours 30 minutes

Number of Sections

5

4

Sections

Child Development and Pedagogy (30 questions, 30 marks)

Language I (30 questions, 30 marks)

Language II (30 questions, 30 marks)

Mathematics (30 questions, 30 marks)

Environmental Studies (30 questions, 30 marks)

Child Development and Pedagogy (30 questions, 30 marks)

Language I (30 questions, 30 marks)

Language II (30 questions, 30 marks)

Choice of:

- Mathematics & Science (60 questions, 60 marks)

or

- Social Studies/Social Science (60 questions, 60 marks)

Question Type

Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs), 4 options

Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs), 4 options

Marking Scheme

+1 mark for correct answer, No negative mark

+1 mark for correct answer, No negative mark

Languages of Exam Paper

English and Hindi

English and Hindi