The Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights has received a series of complaints about schools conducting classes during vacations.
Commission authorities said they had received at least 14 complaints from across the State. A notice had been sent to the Director of General Education on the matter. A hearing would be held soon to address these petitions, by including officials of various streams, including the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).
Most of the complaints related to unaided schools, particularly CBSE schools, commission officials said.
In the State capital, a Class 10 student of a CBSE school rued that his vacation would be curtailed with classes set to begin this week. This after the school completed the students’ Class 9 exams by the last week of February and reopened for Class 10 in the first week of March. The classes were stopped in April to allow just a month of vacations, and now the student would have to return to school for continuing his Class 10 portions.
Another prominent school in the city would reopen for Class 10 students next week for both ICSE and CBSE streams. This school also conducted classes for Class 10 students in March and was reopening a month early after trimming the vacations.
Students said the pressure of performing well in the Class 10 board examinations began very early in the academic year, and it was depressing that they could not enjoy the summer vacation doing things they wanted to.
Another ICSE school is reopening on May 15 even for Class 9 students; the students though did enjoy almost two months of vacation.
CBSE regional office authorities said they received a couple of complaints about classes being conducted in March for Class 10 students, but these were taken up with the schools concerned. They insisted that the board was not keen on shaping students who were only bookworms; students should get time to pursue their extracurricular interests, they felt.
It was with the aim of finishing syllabus early and conducting revision that the schools held classes during vacations. However, a teacher wondered if it was not unscientific to rush through the syllabus, ideally framed to be covered in class in 10 months, and finish it by November. The practice was done at the cost of students’ vacations so that revision for the March board examinations could be started by December itself. How much the students were able to comprehend in class was suspect since the focus was on completing portions. Schools were so used to this practice that they would not even entertain the thought of doing anything differently, he said.
Commission authorities said vacations were meant to be a period for students to pursue various interests apart from academics. There was also very low parental awareness of the importance of such pursuits for the mental and emotional health of children.
