Session change plan delayed

Mou Chakraborty
Kolkata, November 22
The school education minister Partha De’s desire to change the current academic session from May-April to January-December may not happen soon.
According to sources, differences of opinion between the minister and CPI(M)s education cell has not been thrashed out and the matter has been referred to the party’s state secretariat.
The education cell headed by former school education minister Kanti Biswas felt that if the session begins from January students would not stand to benefit. The main argument forwarded by De is that the proposed January-December session would add more days to the academic calendar. Teachers would thus have more time to complete the syllabus.
According to the circular issued by the state all government schools and aided institutions should have 200 teaching days in an academic session. But the present April-May session sees most schools managing 132 to 140 teaching days. This is mainly because the new session begins on May 1, which is a holiday and after 12 days of class the one-month summer vacation begins.
Teachers feel that if students get so many holidays at the beginning of the academic session his zeal for studying suffers. With most of the districts affected by flood during the rainy season classes and studies take a back seat. After few more days of class the Durga Puja vacation begins which is followed by half-yearly exams and pre test. If the session begins in January the school education department feels that most of the schools will be able to conduct classes for 175 to 200 days.
The state had a January-December academic session but it changed to April-May in he late 80’s. Despite De and several non-CPI(M) teachers organisations agreeing to the change, both Biswas and the representatives from ABTA, ABPTA and SFI in the core committee of CPI(M)s education cell too could not agree with the minister.
“We do not think this to be the right way to solve the problem,” said a member of the education cell on condition of anonymity. It may be noted that the five-member expert committee formed by the government for this purpose too could not unanimously agree to De’s view.
The committee is yet to present its report to the government. With the kind of opinion divide between De and his party colleagues it seems that the government will have to take a longer time to take a final decision.
Mou.Chakraborty@hindustantimes.com