Summary
The extended summer vacation ate into working days, said most schools, including those who have not yet altered their academic calendar
Several schools are restructuring their 2024 academic calendar to ensure minimal disruption during the summer. The summer vacations were extended in the past two years, reducing the number of working days, schools said.
In 2023, schools had to close a week in advance because of a hot spell following a directive from the state government.
The extended summer vacation ate into working days, said most schools, including those who have not yet altered their academic calendar.
Four schools on the northern fringe of the city under St Augustine’s Education Trust will start the 2024 academic session in March instead of April.
Future Foundation School will begin in April but has decided to cut down its ses-sion break by about two weeks.
Loreto Day School Elliot Road is starting in April but about 10 days earlier than the last session.
South City International School has decided to start classes for students of Classes IX and XI in March so teachers can move ahead with their syllabus.
The Heritage School informed parents in July that they will begin the academic session in March. They will start on March 18.
Principals across these institutions said working in April would give them an uninterrupted period before they break for summer.
“In the past, we have seen we end up losing significant academic hours because of
the change in weather patterns. It therefore becomes imperative for us to ensure a sufficient number of working days. We have consciously taken a decision to complete the academic session by February next year,” said Rodney Borneo, principal, St Augustine’s Day School Shyamnagar.
The school will start the academic session on March 11.
In Kalyani, St Augustine’s Day School for Girls and St Augustine’s Day School for Boys, which both offer up to Class VIII, have decided to start in the first week of March.
Future Foundation School, which usually begins around the Bengali New Year, will start in the first week of April.
“We intend to save two weeks by cutting down on our session break,” said principal Ranjan Mitter.
Seema Sapru, principal of The Heritage School, said the change in the schedule will ensure that even if it gets hot in May and they have to close, they would have a sufficient number of working days before that.
“The last two years were extremely hot and we had to close early for summer. In 2024, even if we have to close early we would have made up already,” said Sapru.
Based on Met data between 1991 and 2020, April and May are the hottest months in Calcutta.
Around the time schools are planning to start the session, the Class X and Class
XII board exams would be on and schools would have to ensure that they remain undisturbed.
“The exams are held in one part of the school and we can ensure that they are not disturbed,” said Sapru.
But not all schools have such segregation to be able to conduct classes and exams simultaneously.
In April, teachers, too, are busy correcting board papers.
“The teachers who are there in school will move ahead with their syllabus. When other teachers return from correction they can take the periods of those teachers who took their classes in their absence,” said Jessica Gomes Surana, principal
of Loreto Day School Elliot Road.
Several principals said online classes were an option during the summer break.
“We are not negating it (going online for a brief period) completely but it cannot compensate for in-person classes,” said Borneo.
Last updated on 28 Dec 2023
