Schools, PTAs can decide festival holidays, says edu ministry

The education ministry has finally ended the suspense about holidays for the Ganpati and other festivals that were being demanded by various political and religious organisations. Rather than announcing fixed dates for the allocation of holidays, the ministry, in its resolution, has put the onus on the schools and the parents teachers associations (PTA) to decide on the date and duration of the holidays, ensuring that the academic days criteria is followed. 

According to the GR, as per the Right to Education (RTE) Act Clause 52.2, schools are required to have 230 academic days and holidays cannot exceed 73 days in an academic year. The GR further states that as schools have been instructed to have an active PTA for deciding on the academic and psychological well-being of the students. The decision of having short-term holidays for various festivals is the prerogative of the schools and PTA. The resolution states that holidays decided should ensure that the academic system, which includes classes and examinations are not disrupted or affected and the regional education offices should ensure that unit tests do not clash with the holidays decided by the school and PTA.

The resolution has also given the option of schools allowing students of different religions to take holidays as per their festivals, but has added that the school management and PTA should ensure that the lost academic days of the students are compensated, as well as tests are held separately for such students if they took festival related holidays during the exam period. Sources in the ministry said that such a resolution had to be issued as there had been requests from various organisations for holidays during different festivals like Ganpati, Bakri Id, Paryushan and so on. As most schools in the state, especially in Mumbai have a cosmopolitan student base it was not possible to announce official holidays for all these festivals, hence the onus was put on the school managements and PTAs.

Source | Asian Age | 9 September 2015

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