Govt opts for flexible vacation system in schools

Instead of having fixed vacation in schools, the government has decided to adopt a flexible and decentralised vacation system. The government has prepared a tentative vacation schedule for both winter-closing and summer-closing schools and invited feedback from stakeholders like teachers and parents within 15 days.

“The idea behind tweaking the fixed vacation schedule is to ensure that the vacations do not go beyond 52 days and the vacations are in sync with local weather conditions,” said Sunil Verma, Joint Secretary, Education.

“In the revamped system, the Deputy Commissioners and Deputy Directors, Higher Education, have been empowered to decide vacations on the basis of the prevailing weather conditions. The Deputy Commissioners will notify vacations on the basis of proposal submitted by the Deputy Director,” said Verma.

The government felt the need to change the fixed vacation system to ensure the students get vacations at a time when it’s needed the most. At times, the students get summer vacation before or after peak summers. Similarly, the monsoon break would come before or after the peak monsoon period. In the proposed system, the local authorities will notify vacations as per the local weather conditions. The DCs will also have the power to notify the vacations in a staggered manner, if required. For example, he can notify the weeklong monsoon break in one go or in two or three brackets as per the local weather.

Box: The tentative vacation schedule

As per the tentative vacation schedule, the DCs will have a greater say in determining the vacations in summer closing schools. The DC will notify summer and monsoon breaks, not exceeding 40 days depending on weather conditions. He will also notify a winter break of seven days, again depending on local weather. There will be a fixed festival break of five days.

For the winter closing schools, there will be a fixed winter break of 42 days from January 1 to February 11, and three days festival break. In these schools, the DC will notify monsoon/climate exigency break of seven days.