Common academic calendar for high schools far from reality

With or without a common academic calendar, life goes on as many children continue to attend school to receive knowledge they are offered. PHOTO: Syed Zakir Hossain

The proposal is designed to help secondary educational institutes maintain certain teaching standards and have all schools adopt a common academic year.

State Minister for Education ANM Ehsanul Hoque Milon introduced a pilot academic calendar to schools in his constituency of Kochua in Chandpur district to ensure equal standards of education.

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"I started the calendar in my constituency on an experimental basis but it needs ministerial approval before it can be launched all over the country," he said.

"I hope we will see the same calendar in every school early next year."

Basically, secondary schools will be asked to open the same day. Besides, other activities like examination timings, vacation schedules and annual sports and picnics will be done simultaneously.

Presently there are no rules or regulations governing how secondary schools are run. Hence many school authorities set their own timetables and invariably this leads to the syllabus not being completed on time.

"Our aim at improving the quality of education will not be successful unless we start from the grass-root level and that is why we plan for one calendar," Milon explained.

Also he identified there was a lack of accountability in secondary schools. "There also must be a monitoring cell set up within the education ministry. It will ensure that academic calendar is followed precisely and put forward suggestions to improve it.

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On the other hand, educationists like Shahan Ara Begum defended their current academic calendar as sufficient.

"Just having a common calendar won't be enough to improve standards. We need to introduce a whole range of reforms as well," she said without elaborating.

The principal of Ideal School and College said their calendar has been followed for the last 30 years without a hitch.

According to her the government will find it difficult to impose a universal calendar because of the way certain high schools manage board examinations. In most cases classes have to remain suspended while seats are arranged in the halls.

The state minister said: "We are trying to address the problem by adjusting exams with other holidays."

But Nasreen Zahan, a mother of two high school kids, has already welcomed a common calendar for all secondary schools.

"We can't plan for any excursions as my kids' schools vacation dates never coincide," she remarked.