Telangana: Private schools likely to trim Dasara holidays

Hyderabad: After the State government extended holidays for all educational institutions across Telangana due to heavy rain, questions have been raised whether there would be a cut in the Dasara holidays. Also, many private schools have planned to cut down the second Saturday and fourth Saturday holidays.

Shiva Rama Krishna, correspondent, St. Sai High School, said," For almost a week schools have been closed on account of the holidays announced by the government. If rain does not stop the government may decide to extend the holidays. If there will frequent shutdown of schools, teachers will face hardship to complete syllabus, specially for class 10 students.

According to the academic calendar issued by the Education department, the Dasara holidays have been scheduled from September 26 to October 10. There is a talk that there would be a cut in the holidays."

On condition of anonymity, a government schoolteacher said, "We may have to cut short our Dasara break in order to compensate for the loss of working days, especially since completion of syllabus for classes 9-10 students is extremely crucial. At least half of total portions should be completed by October.

Therefore, even if we have to add more working days to the academic calendar, we shall do so to ensure that there is no compromise."

Yadagiri Shekar Rao, president, Telangana Recognised School Managements Association (TRSMA), said during the academic years 2019 to 2022, due to the Covid pandemic learning in schools was impeded due to closing. Though studies have been offered through alternative channels, like online classes, this approach does not make up for the loss of learning in schools. Even this year just only a month after the new academic year began, due to heavy rainfall educational institutions have been shut for a week. We don't know how long the holidays will be extended.

So to compensate for the loss of working days many private schools have planned cut down the second and fourth Saturday holidays for the students of higher classes."