Mangaluru: With Dasara celebrations falling early this year, instead of the usual mid-Oct, schools are under pressure to finish the syllabus. Already hit by over 10 days of unscheduled monsoon holidays, most schools have managed to cover only 25% of the syllabus to date, while they are expected to complete 50% before midterm.Concerned about the lost time, schools have urged govt to consider holding the midterm exams only after the Dasara break, to ensure fair preparation time for students and enough time for the teachers to complete the syllabus. Some schools are rushing through the syllabus to meet the deadline, sources said. Dasara celebrations will begin this Sept end.A majority of the schools have managed to complete 20% to 25% of the syllabus so far. “We started the academic year with Foundational Literacy and Numeracy programme. Along with mandatory internal assessments that took several days, the unscheduled monsoon holidays also disrupted the schedule. As a result, majority of schools have not been able to finish the stipulated syllabus. Hence, it is advisable that the exams are held in Oct, or after Dasara,” a govt school teacher said.Another govt primary school teacher said that compared to previous years, the academic environment has improved across all govt schools. “In previous years, teachers were loaded with non-academic or clerical work like attending seminars and other assignments. Due to associations opposing these assignments, we are able to focus on academics this year. As a result, we have managed to complete a good amount of the syllabus. However, this year we are loaded with Learning Based Assignments, where the school needs to upload every student’s work online. We will be able to complete about 35% syllabus before mid-terms,” said the teacher.A parent said, “With less time, schools are just trying to complete the syllabus. Some are sending lesson plans through WhatsApp and asking parents to complete the chapters for the students. Even subjects like mathematics, science, and English are rushing their syllabus. This will hamper the learning process, and we are concerned about it.”GS Shashidhar, DDPI, Dakshina Kannada, said that all schools must adhere to the academic calendar of events and cannot claim that early Dasara is hindering them from completing the syllabus. “We understand that rain holidays did cause inconvenience, and it can be resolved with full-day classes on Saturdays,” he added.
