OF ACADEMIC YEAR IN APRIL

PANAJI:  Parents of school students from across the state on Thursday submitted a memorandum to director of education Shailesh Zingade stating that they want the new academic year to begin from the first week of June as was done all these years, and not from April 1.

Stating that the decision of the government to start the academic year from April 1 is a flawed implementation of National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 in Goa, the memorandum said, “We strongly believe that the current implementation process in Goa is misguided, lacks transparency and fails to address the unique needs and concerns of our children.”

It may be noted that the state government has decided to start the academic year from April 1 by following the NEP 2020.

“The recent changes to the academic year schedule, requiring students to start attending school in April, have raised several concerns among parents and students,” the memorandum said, pointing out, “These changes seem to contradict the principles outlined in the NEP 2020 and the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCFSE) 2023.”

The key concerns regarding the NEP implementation in Goa as pointed out in the memorandum include lack of consultation with the stakeholders, inadequate infrastructure of educational institutions, climatic unsuitability due to sweltering summer, contradiction to holistic development aim of NEP 2020, curriculum changes increasing the burden on students, unclear instructions regarding promotion of class IX students causing mental stress, language formula contradictory to the principles of NEP 2020 and denying children the Right to Opportunity, no rationale necessitating hurried shift in change in the academic year and disastrous planning for implementation of NEP in class IX for the academic year 2024-25.

The memorandum also urged the government and the directorate of education to have a meeting with members of the Parents-Teachers Associations of all schools and take their suggestions/ feedback along with the suggestions/ feedback of other stakeholders like teachers and heads of schools in Goa before implementing the academic year decision.

Meanwhile, when the delegation of parents asked about the availability of textbooks, Zingade said e-books will be available for the students and that he could not say for sure that the physical textbooks will be available in April for the new academic year. The parents told him that not all students have accessibility to gadgets to follow the e-book system, and there is no proper planning about making physical textbooks available.