Full day school may not take off for now!

PANJIM, MARCH 3
Full day schools in the State may not be reality from the forthcoming academic year even though heads of schools have agreed to go in for this concept.
Education Department officials said that though preparation for implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 had started, it is very difficult to say whether the full day school concept would be implemented from the academic year 2011-2012.
“The State Government is yet to adopt a policy decision in this regard, which will cease the tradition of having half day schools in the State”, officials said adding that Department of Education is already in possession of the Act but the Recruitment Rules for the same are still pending with the State Law Department for vetting purpose.
The National Policy on Education has made it mandatory to have full day schools in the country. While many States converted their half day schools into full day, Goa is yet to comply with the policy.
Going by RTE, the teaching hours may have to be seven and half, which will increase to 45 per week. A minimum 200 days a year will be made instructional days for primary and 220 days for secondary.
Officials, however, stated that managing committees of various schools are opposing the new concept as they did not have the required infrastructure like playground, toilets, canteens and other facilities.
Moreover, there are some schools which run in two sessions. The second batch of students occupy the classrooms only when first leaves for the day.
Meanwhile, the Goa Headmasters Association (GHA) has vehemently supported full day schools in the State. According to them, the full day school concept can work well to eradicate several issues concerning the current educational system.
“We are in favour of the full day schools. The Education Department was informed that we have no issues with the changeover”, Jose Mario Quadros, Chairman, GHA, told Herald.
He said the Association had asked the State Government to implement the full day school system.
GHA’s Vice President Abdul Aziz Mulla said that the changeover from half to full day schools could be implemented in phases.
“If you want to have a school for full day you require proper infrastructure for that. The school managements can be given time for proper infrastructure”, he said.
The GHA had proposed that the transition could be done over a period of three years. “Schools which had infrastructure in place could go in for full day schooling from next academic year”, Mulla said.
With this, the issue of private tuitions by teachers could also be resolved to a great extent as students can do their homework under guidance of the teacher and the teachers in turn would not have time to take tuitions, Mulla said.
The GHA Vice President said that many a times students are enrolled for tuitions only because parents are not at home and they want their child to study under proper guidance.