Historically, Goa has started its academic year in the month of June, after the summer and coinciding with the onset of the monsoon that brings respite from the heat. This year the academic year has already begun in April, falling in line with the all-India pattern of a spring start to the academic year.
Goa does not have an authentic season of spring, it transits from a pleasantly-mild winter to a torrid summer and parents voiced their disapproval at the April start to the academic year, through protests and petitions, and then, even a legal plea.
But, the government decision prevailed, and schools did reopen for the new academic year this week.
However, while schools have reopened in April, they will have holidays the entire month of May, and then, recommence classes in June, carrying on from where they left off in April.
ICSE and CBSE schools in Goa are already following the pattern of a March or April start to the new academic year, and neither students of these schools nor parents appear to have had any issue with this start to the school year.
It was only now, when the Goa Board decided to fall in line with the rest of the country that the issue arose, and the weather – the heat mainly – is the main objection that was raised, and in some cases, is still being raised.
ICSE and CBSE schools in Goa are already following the pattern of a March or April start to the new academic year, and neither students of these schools nor parents appear to have had any issue with this start to the school year.
However, it would be interesting to look back at a few years ago, and see how the academic years in Goa stretched to mid-April, without any concerns being raised about the heat.
In the 1970s and 1980s, when my generation was in school, the Class X or SSC exams started on April 1. Students answered two papers a day – a three-hour paper in the morning and another three-hour paper in the afternoon – in classrooms that had no fans.
The morning paper started at 10 am and the afternoon paper at 2.30 pm. Most students carried a dry lunch, and ate it sitting in the shade of whatever tree was in the vicinity of the school, as the school building gates would be closed and no students would be allowed within during that break.
With most schools taken up as centres for the SSC exams, classes for the rest of the students ended at 9.20 am for those five days, or some schools had study holidays so that students did not have to come to school for just over an hour of classes.
The no-fail policy did not exist at that time, and so, classes from I to IX had their final exams after the SSC exams had ended, as the classrooms were available again. The academic year, therefore, ended in mid-April and report cards arrived by post towards the end of April.
The no-fail policy did not exist at that time, and so, classes from I to IX had their final exams after the SSC exams had ended, as the classrooms were available again.
After the SSC exams, the Class XII or HSSC exams would be held, starting around April 10 and going on for much over a week as there were three streams and various optional subjects, so the last paper would he held close to the end of April.
Here, too, there were two papers a day – morning and afternoon – and some of the colleges, as higher secondaries, at that time, were attached to colleges and not schools, did have ceiling fans, but it must be remembered that not all did.
The exam system now is different. The SSC and HSSC exams are held in February and March, and in Goa, the HSSC and SSC exam results have already been announced. If the SSC and HSSC exams are held so early, it is because this is the system followed in the rest of the country and because of the entrance exams after Class XII that are usually in May.
A June start to the academic year gives these students just eight months of study and preparation, for their public exam. Is that time enough? Or, do they require more time?
A June start to the academic year gives these students just eight months of study and preparation, for their public exam. Is that time enough?
Given these exam dates and entrance test schedules, wouldn’t an early start to the academic year be beneficial to students, giving them more time in school and allowing the teachers to prepare their students better for the board exams?
The heat of course is an issue, one cannot ignore it, but one does have to look at the other issues involved in an early start to the academic year. If the ICSE and CBSE schools are already doing it in Goa, they perhaps would be the best to reveal how they manage and whether there are any negatives to this.
This being the first year, there were protests. It usually happens when something new is proposed in Goa. Possibly this time next year, nobody will be talking about it, and there will be a seamless start to the academic year. We will just have to wait and see.
