The schools across the country will now open on Saturdays with immediate effect. The education ministry issued a notification last Friday. The ministry said it is due to the pandemic affecting the smooth conduct of academic sessions resulting in a huge loss of normal classes.
The Saturdays will be utilised to conduct bridging lessons to make up for the learning loss experienced last year. It is also to compensate for the lost instructional time, coordinate remedial lessons and accelerated learning initiatives to help those students who are academically weaker. But students from classes PP to III will not have to go to school on Saturdays.
Due to the pandemic last year, the students from classes IX to XII received interrupted contact teaching. But the students from classes PP to VIII were promoted based on online learning records.
Keeping Saturday off in schools was implemented in 2019. The 19th National Education Conference decided in December 2018. It was also one of the pledges of the ruling party.
SamtenDolkar