NT NETWORK
PANAJI
The education department has issued a circular stating that the instructional hours for the schools around the state during the academic year 2017-18 shall be not less than five-and-a-half hours per day, exclusive of school recess. “Accordingly, the timing of the school is to be adjusted without altering the total number of periods,” it added.
The circular issued by the director of education G P Bhat further stated that the total number of working days including examination days for primary, secondary and higher secondary schools shall not be less than 234 days and total number of instructional days shall not be less than 200 days during the academic year 2017-18. “The second term’s examination should be held only after completion of 200 instructional days,” it added.
As per the circular, the first term of the schools in the state for the next academic year will start on June 5, 2017 and end on October 14, 2017, while the second term would start on November 6, 2017 and end on April 30, 2018.
“The first summative/ mid-term examination shall be held preferably from October 9, 2017 and the second summative/ terminal examination shall be held preferably before March 30, 2018,” the circular maintained, pointing out that the examination results shall not be declared before April 30, 2018.
“The formative assessment of the students shall be conducted as per the convenience of the school and remaining hours of the days should be utilised for regular classes after formative assessment is over,” the circular maintained.
The director of education informed this daily that for the next academic year, the department of education has increased the annual discretionary holidays of the schools from 8 to 10.
The heads of the schools would now be authorised to declare 10 discretionary holidays. Out of these 10 discretionary holidays, the heads of the schools shall declare 4 discretionary holidays adjoining to the public holidays for Ganesh Chaturthi, and remaining 6 days are to be declared in consultation with Parent Teachers Association/ village education committee.
The non-teaching staff of the school will be entitled for these discretionary holidays; however they are not entitled for restricted holidays.
