Maharashtra Education Minister, Varsha Gaikwad has freshly announced a revised Diwali break for schools starting November 7 until November 20.
Previously, teachers had demanded a 21-day break for Diwali citing heavy workload due to the online classes that are underway since March.
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This comes as the education department announced on November 5 that it will only provide 5 days of leave as compared to the 21-days of leave that is offered usually.
With this in mind, the holidays had been announced between November 12 to 16. Understandably, this didn’t go down well with the students as well as teachers. It’s worth mentioning that teachers missed out on their leaves during festivals like Ganesh Chaturthi this year.
Following the outcry from the teaching staff and students, the education department on Friday formally announced a 14 day leave for teachers. The government has asked schools to not conduct any form of online classes during this Diwali vacation period.
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The government had previously justified the lack of leaves by saying that the faculty had to complete the pending syllabus for the academic year. Rules say that it is compulsory for teachers to have 230 workdays in an academic year.
University examinations have also been adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic with some exams being postponed or cancelled altogether. Further, officials also ran into technical troubles at examination centres as the software for conducting examinations reportedly malfunctioned.
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