Government’s Directive Against Saturday Classes Meets the Fury of School Managements

In the wake of the directive issued by the Thiruvananthapuram region director of CBSE to discontinue Saturday classes for grades 1 to 5 in all CBSE-affiliated schools, dissatisfaction has set  in school managements.

Earlier the Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights had received several complaints about students being overburdened with studies as schools were conducting classes on Saturdays. The CBSE directive has come in response to the commission’s suggestions. Babu Narikkuni, a former member of the Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, had also cited the right to Education Act which lays down the number of working days for students of grades I to V as 200.

However the managements contest that completing the syllabus in 200 days is a difficult task as the functioning of schools get disturbed owing to unforeseen events, strikes being one of them. Often they also have to conduct extra classes to complete the syllabus on time.

The move of the government though definitely seems in the interests of students’ all round development. In addition to the fact that their workload will reduce and they will get more time for self-study, they will also have more leisure time at their disposal which could be constructively utilised.