Kochi: Two months of mirth and enjoyment for children are getting over with schools set to reopen next week, most of them on Monday. These include the state, CBSE and ICSE schools. While a handful of them have already started classes, a few will reopen on coming Wednesday.
“We are sad that our vacation has come to an end. Now I have to get back to the hustle and bustle of the city from the serene surroundings of my mother’s native village in Thrissur. The daily grind of studies is also interesting and I am preparing to get back to that,” said Navaneeth, a Class VIII student of a school in Kochi.
Around four lakh students are expected to join first standard when the state syllabus schools reopen after two months of summer vacation. This time the government has made clear that it would implement the Right to Education Act. This means that the unrecognized schools functioning in the state will have to close down.
One of the major complaints is that textbooks have not reached schools in many parts of the state even now. The announced policy of the Government was to ensure textbooks in schools before school reopening. The Health Department has issued notices to 1769 schools in the state functioning without toilets. These included 689 government schools. The notice was issued on the basis of an inspection conducted across the state as a prelude to school reopening. These schools have been asked to improve facilities before June 1.
Most of the 1380 CBSE schools in the state too begin their academic year on June 1 and a vast number of new students are set to join these and ICSE schools. Talking about the upcoming academic year preparations, Sahodaya Malappuram complex general secretary Abdul Nazar said, “Since the CBSE schools under the board do not have a uniform framework, the schools will frame their own individual working plans for the year”.
