The Odisha Parents’ Federation on Tuesday wrote to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank urging them to declare a 180-day academic calendar from December 1, 2020 or from January 2, 2021 for students up to Class XII with all precautions against Covid-19.
The letter written by federation chairman Basudev Bhatta also urged the CM and the Union Minister to prepare a strong standard operating procedure (SOP) exclusively for conducting classes in Odisha.
Bhatta mentioned that the Ministry of Education on Tuesday declared a new academic calendar for UG and PG students from November 1, 2020 to August 2021 but not for Class 1 to XII.Normally, the academic calendar of schools affiliated to the CBSE/ICSE and Odisha boards like BSE and CHSE begin in the first week of April and then break for summer vacations in May or June depending on different schools and classes. The session then resumes between July and August.As per the present status, this pattern, however, will have to be changed this year as schools cannot reopen in the due time due to Covid-19 regulations in the State and the country.
“As it was decided by the NCERT and other boards to keep current academic year from September 2020 to April 2021 with reduced syllabus 30% and 25%, it will be difficult to complete 70% courses in this half year,” pointed out Bhatta.
He too mentioned that less than 10 lakh out of 60 lakh students are covered under online classes in Odisha. Students in KVs, JNSs and other Central schools are also facing similar constraints to reach out to 50-60% students in online classes during pandemic period. It is high time to rethink on relevance of online classes,” urged Bhatta.