Extended vacation may eat into Delhi students’ weekends
By IANSTuesday, January 11, 2011
NEW DELHI - An extended winter vacation may have spelt good news for Delhi’s school kids, but not for long. Running short on time to finish their syllabi, schools are planning extra classes which will most likely eat into the much-cherished weekends.
The biting cold forced the Delhi government to re-extend vacations in all public and government schools till Jan 13. Earlier, the schools were set to re-open Jan 3 after the winter break, but the government had announced the closure of schools till Jan 10.
While the extended break has come as a relief in the face of bitter cold, school authorities have charted out contingency plans to finish the syllabi on time by planning extra classes.
“We are going to take extra classes on two Saturdays this month since we have to cover half the syllabus,” Usha Ram, principal of Laxman Public School in south Delhi, told IANS.
R.P. Mallik, chairman of the Federation of Public Schools, an umbrella organisation of 200 schools in the capital, said: “There will be extra classes for class 10 and 12 because the board year students need to complete their syllabi within a month. Their exams will begin in March.”
An official of Apeejay School in Pitampura said: “We are following the government order but I am worried. To compensate for the loss of working days, we will function on all Saturdays of February.”
“Summer vacations were cut short earlier this academic session to compensate for the loss of working days during the Commonwealth Games in October. So this time too we have to make up for the loss,” the official added.
Parents too are a worried lot.
“A greater number of holidays may seem to be a boon, but it has actually added to our tension. We don’t know if their syllabus will be completed properly or rushed through before the exams,” said Ramesh Gupta, a father of two.
