Congress demands clarity on school holidays

Nampally: The Congress party on Friday urged the State government to give clarity on extension of Dasara holidays for schoolchildren in view of the ongoing strike by RTC employees.

Hyderabad City Congress Committee (HCCC) Minorities Department Chairman Sameer Waliullah in a media statement alleged that the extension of Dasara holidays by six days till October 19 completely upset the academic schedule.

Accusing the KCR government of playing with careers of lakhs of innocent schoolchildren, he said that a lot of rumours were doing the rounds with regard to re-opening of schools. With October 20 being Sunday, schools would re-open on October 21. But what would happen if the strike continued on Monday? Will the government extend holidays for more time?

Sameer pointed out that as per the academic calendar, the Summative Assessment-SA1 was scheduled to be held from October 21 to 26. This means that without any classes or preparation in the last one week, students will have to write exams on first day of re-opening of school.

The Congress leader slammed the State government for giving too many holidays to schoolchildren. He said children in Telangana lost 11 academic days when the schools were re-opened on June 12 instead of June 1 due to heatwaves.

Since the schools re-opened on June 12, there were 10 public holidays, 18 Sundays, 3 second Saturdays and 23 Dasara holidays. Out of 131 days from re-opening of schools on June 12 to re-opening of schools after extended Dasra vacation on October 21 (Oct 20 is Sunday), there would 54 holidays as against just 77 working days.

"As per academic calendar, the last day of working of academic year 2019-20 is April 23, 2020. There will be about 14-15 public holidays, 6 second Saturday and 26 Sundays in this period. We will have another 6 days of Sankranti Holidays.

Missionary schools will have 7 additional holidays for Christmas. This means that there will be another 52-53 holidays in current academic year. Therefore, there will about 134 days left for the schools, teachers and students to complete their syllabus and write exams," he said.

Sameer Wailullh said there would be more problems for SSC students who are scheduled to complete their syllabus by January 10, 2020 or in the next 82 days including holidays.

Other students from Classes 1 to 9 must complete the syllabus by February 29, 2020. "Is it possible? By not finding a solution to RTC strike, TRS government is not only playing with the lives of thousands of RTC employees, but also with the careers of lakhs of students," he said.