Staff Reporter
Panaji
A day after the Directorate of Education announced that the new academic year for Classes 6 to 10 and Class 12 in Goa will begin from April instead of June, school headmasters from across the state raised several questions on the new schedule during crucial meetings held with top officials on Friday.
Some headmasters also expressed unhappiness over the meetings being convened after the issuance of circular.
Secretary (Education) Prasad Lolayekar, IAS, Director of Education Shailesh Zingde and others from the education department held separate meetings with headmasters of North Goa and South Goa schools.
Headmasters present at the meets told this daily that many of them questioned the officials on the commencement of the new academic year in April and also on the preparedness with regard to implementation of NEP 2020.
Other queries raised at the meetings were related to revised syllabus, infrastructure and the workload on teachers with respect to correction of papers and other matters.
Stating that it was necessary to start implementing various aspects of NEP from now on, Lolayekar said the government was open to considering suggestions for further improvement in the implementation of the policy.
He also said the government is in the process of constituting committees, including at block level, to assist schools and hear their grievances while adopting new models in the education sector, sources said.
It may be noted that the Directorate of Education had on Thursday issued a circular announcing that the new academic year for 2025-26 will start from April for students of Classes 6-10 and Class 12.
The government has asked heads of the institutions to follow guidelines such as conducting classes up to 11.30 am in April. According to circular, summer vacation will be from May 1 to June 3, 2025.
Following the circular, the government held meetings on Friday with headmasters of government, government-aided and unaided recognised schools. Meetings with headmasters from North Goa were held in Porvorim in the morning, while the officials met headmasters of South Goa schools in Margao in the evening.
