KOZHIKODE: The High Court order which allowed 52 CBSE schools in the state to conduct classes for students of Classes IX to XII during the summer vacation has come as a shot in the arm for the national board which was under pressure from affiliated schools to come up with some solution to make amends for the instructional days lost in the state, mainly due to hartals and strikes.
The CBSE came up with detailed statistics that closure of schools due to the monsoon, festivals, hartal and other holidays reduced the number of instructional working days to 166. As per the CBSE curriculum, schools require 220 instructional days. Of the working days lost, hartals and strikes constituted 12 days on an average, the CBSE argued before the HC.
“CBSE follows a curriculum designed scientifically and instructional days have been calculated accordingly. Providing the opportunity to students to attend classes in the month of April and May, to complete the syllabus, will only be beneficial to them,” CBSE regional officer Tarun Kumar told Express.
According to Kerala CBSE School Management Association general secretary Indira Rajan, CBSE has not prescribed a specific vacation period.
“CBSE schools were never asked by any governments to shut down completely for a specific period. The court found merit in the argument imposing such rigid restrictions on the schools was unfair,” she said. She added more schools, among the 1,380 schools affiliated to the national board, would approach the court in the coming days seeking permission to conduct vacation classes.
Over the next week, the CBSE regional office will have a tough task at hand to examine the declarations by the school managements in detail to ascertain whether the institution has sufficient facilities for conducting vacation classes. A resolution taken by the PTA supporting the conduct of such classes will also be examined. It was not immediately clear what plan of action would the schools which did not approach the court would adopt.
‘No Confrontation: ICSE schools
Schools in the state affiliated to the Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) have taken a divergent stand. Management representatives said schools have decided not to go in for any sort of confrontation with the government or the Child Rights Commission regarding vacation classes.