Reshma Ravishanker

Cutting short summer holidays and sending teachers on holidays in batches, most private schools across the city are commencing the next academic year’s classes with just a week’s break this summer.

The department of public instruction, in its academic calendar said that summer holidays would commence on April 10 upto May 15 this academic year. This has been cut short from a conventional 50-day break.

Private schools, however, are starting classes as early as the last week of April or first week of March to conduct bridge courses and short classes in the name of summer camps to make up for the previous year’s learning loss.

Savitha M, a teacher from a private unaided school in Hebbal said, “We recognize that children have not learnt much the previous academic year as it was mostly online classes. The management is of the opinion that calling students two weeks in advance will give us enough time to revise the previous year’s syllabus. While we agree that there is certainly an extent of learning loss, in this bargain, teachers are the ones working without a break. We are calling students back to attend summer classes and it is optional for them. Teachers have no option.”

In some schools, management is looking at getting students back to in-person learning, asking them to join summer camps before mid-May.

AR Mahesh, secretary, Sunrise Public School said that although full-fledged bridge courses would commence from May 15 as asked by the education department, optional summer camps would begin in the second week of April. Students will attend classes 3-5 hours a day on campus as part of the camps.

“The idea is to start bringing children back on campus. After the pandemic, a lot of parents have migrated to other places. If they bring their children when summer camps begin, we can hope for full attendance by the time the bridge course begins. Teachers will go on a break in the first week of April. We are sending teachers on a break in batches as we understand that only when they unwind can they perform well the next academic year,” Mahesh said. 

Also read: Making summer holidays meaningful