Two ICSE schools in and around Calcutta have started their new academic session ahead of the usual date so they do not lose out on working days if the summer vacation is extended.
The Heritage School in Anandapur and St Augustine’s Day School in Shyamnagar, North 24-Parganas, have started the new academic session in March.
Most schools affiliated to the ICSE council and the CBSE start their sessions in April.
The two schools decided to bring forward the start of their academic session so they do not lose out on working days if they are forced to start the summer vacation early.
Over the past two years, schools had to start summer recess early or switch to online classes because of a state government directive following heat wave-like conditions.
The Heritage School started the new academic session on Monday and St Augustine’s Day School, Shyamnagar, last week.
“Every year we are seeing that April is getting warmer. So if we start in mid-March, we will be able to utilise this period when the weather is much pleasant,” said Rodney Borneo, principal, St Augustine’s Day School.
In the previous years the summer break was extended at the cost of working
days, said several schools, who have not yet altered their calendar.
Based on Met data between 1991 and 2020, April and May are the hottest months in Calcutta.
Both The Heritage School and St Augustine’s Day School had sent notices to parents last year, informing them about the change much in advance. This was done to ensure parents do not make any holiday plans that might clash with the academic calendar.
“By starting early, we will be able to get a significant amount of time to teach our children. If we are able to continue in May, till we break for summer, we would be able to conduct an assessment, too,” said Seema Sapru, principal, The Heritage School.
The Heritage School will extend the summer break by a week to make up for the curtailment in the session break.
Loreto Day School Elliot Road has brought forward their session by about seven days.
The school is starting the new session on April 3, instead of April 10, as they did last year.
However, the assessment of the ICSE (Class X) and ISC (Class XII) papers are on. Which means a number of teachers in each school are involved in the assessment and can’t be assigned classes.
In April, too, teachers will be busy assessing answer scripts, they said.
“The teachers who are in school will take classes. And once the teachers who are now on evaluation duty return to school, they will be assigned classes of those who have filled in for them,” said Jessica Gomes Surana, principal, Loreto Day School Elliot Road.
“The summer break is long. If we are able to complete a sizeable portion of the syllabus before we close for summer, students will be able to work on those sections.”
Some schools said they did not want to bring the session ahead at this
point because that would mean a very short session break.
“A session ends in the third week of March. If we start the new session in late March, there is practically no session break for teachers and students,” said Satabdi Bhattacharjee, principal, South City International School.
