Break for Games will not affect syllabus, say schools

NEW DELHI - The close of schools in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) during the Commonwealth Games (CWG) will not affect the completion of the syllabus as alternative plans have been made to deal with the break, school authorities said Thursday.

Delhi government officials had asked schools to extend their autumn break from eight to 17 days while reducing the summer holidays from 61 to 49 days. Most of the schools in the Delhi-NCR region will remain closed Oct 1-17.

“This (the closure) was told to us beforehand, so we have planned the term syllabus in the same order. We had shorter summer holidays and have a longer autumn break. So the problem of finishing the syllabus on time does not rise,” Supriya Srivastava, vice principal of the Apeejay School in Noida, told IANS.

“Students used to get four or five days autumn break and now they are getting a week extra,” she added.

The management of Modern School on Delhi’s Barakhamba Road expressed similar views.

“Calculations about the term syllabus were made much in advance, so there is no problem,” said a school official.

Many schools organised extra classes to fill the time gap.

“Since we knew about this break, so we worked it out accordingly and had extra classes to finish the term syllabus,” said an official from Amity International School in Gurgaon.

A few schools like Bluebells School in Gurgaon are yet to confirm the date of its closing for autumn break and classes are going on as before.

Thousands of athletes and officials from 71 countries and territories will participate in the Oct 3-14 Commonwealth Games - the biggest sports event to be hosted by India since the 1982 Asian Games. Thousands of foreign tourists are also expected in the country to witness the event.