Bhubaneswar: Following the footsteps of the School and Mass Education (S&ME) department, the Higher Education (HE) department too has decided to curtail the annual summer vacation to 16 days for this year, in a bid to help the students catch up with their studies that have been disrupted due to Covid-19 pandemic. The S&ME department had curtailed the annual summer vacation for schools to 11 days for 2022.
In a letter to the Vice-Chancellors of state public universities and principals of colleges, HE department Principal Secretary Saswat Mishra wrote, “In order to compensate for the academic days lost on account of Covid-19 related dislocation, the Odisha government has decided to curtail the ensuing summer vacation for all Higher Education Institutions (HEls), including all State Public Universities, coming under the Higher Education department.”
Mishra stated: “The summer vacation will now be allowed for a brief period from June 1 to June 16. With such curtailment of summer vacation, HEIs are expected to complete all academic activities in time. If need be, extra classes should be held on holidays and working days by suitably extending teaching hours.”
Mishra further stated, “Teachers and other employees will be entitled for additional proportionate earned leave in lieu of such curtailment of the summer vacation, which will be communicated in due course of time. The correspondences made by this department in the past pertaining to summer vacation for the 2022-23 Academic Session stand modified to this extent.”
The &ME department Principal Secretary Bishnupada Sethi had informed Saturday all district Collectors that summer vacation would be curtailed and allowed for a brief period from June 6 to June 16. Learning Recovery Plan (LRP) as envisaged by the Odisha School Education Programme Authority (OSEPA) will be implemented with the existing teachers during morning classes, he had said.
The Odisha government has taken a few other measures for class promotion, new admission/readmission and teaching hour of students studying in different schools, Sethi had said.
Class promotion for the students from Class I to VIII will be completed by April 20. New admission/re-admission for Class I to IX will be conducted from April 20 to 30.