Odisha govt revises summer vacation period to 11 days to combat COVID learning loss

In view of the academic restrictions and learning loss faced by the students during the pandemic era, the Odisha government announced the reduction of the period of summer vacation to mitigate the learning loss. As per the new order issued by the Odisha administration, this time, the normal summer vacation period for government schools in the state has been revised to 11 days from the usual 40 days. The summer vacation for Odisha schools will commence on June 6 and continue till July 16, 2022.

Notably, this decision has been adopted by the school education department to make up for the learning loss that has been caused by the COVID pandemic in the last two years. It is pertinent to mention here that the Odisha School Education Programme Authority, OESPA, has termed this initiative the Learning Recovery Plan, or LRP. Through this plan, OESPA seeks to "compensate for the learning losses due to the pandemic in the last two years."

Odisha Govt reduces summer vacation to 11 days to make up for COVID learning loss

According to the official information, the teaching hours for the LRP will be from 6 am to 9 am from May 1 to June 5, 2022. Currently, the morning school starts from 6:30 am to 10:30 am.  The Odisha Education Authority has also decided that the promotion of students from Classes 1 to 8 will be completed by April 20, 2022. Moreover, new admissions and re-admissions for students in Classes 1 to 9 will begin on April 20, 2022, and conclude on April 30, 2022.

A new assessment policy has also been formulated by the Board of Secondary Education, BSE Odisha, which requires Class 9 students to appear for Summative Assessments, or SA. Class 9 students will appear for SA 1 and SA 2 and on the basis of their performance in the exam, the Class 9 students will be promoted to Class 10. The SA 2 exams and results are expected to be released by May 10, 2022.

Image: PTI/ Representative