Half-day for primary schools in Telangana from Wednesday

The decision to shift to a half-day schedule comes at a critical time in the academic calendar as students are in the midst of preparation for the National Achievement Survey (NAS) examination

Hyderabad: Commencing Wednesday, 18,241 government primary schools in the State will shift to a half-day schedule, not due to weather conditions, but due to teaching staff being drafted for the caste survey and consultation work.

Nearly 40,000 educators, including 36,559 Secondary Grade Teachers (SGTs) and 3,414 primary school headmasters (PSHMs) working in 18,241 government primary schools, have been tasked by the Congress government with conducting the caste survey and consultation work for a period of three weeks, leaving without staff to conduct regular classes post lunch.

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Hence, the government announced the half-day schedule with timing from 9 am to 1 pm as against regular timing of 9 am to 4 pm. The primary schools have been asked to let-off students after serving mid-day meals. Every year, the half-day schools with timings 8 am to 12.30 pm are announced in the summer season due to scorching heat conditions in the State.

The decision to shift to a half-day schedule comes at a critical time in the academic calendar as students are in the midst of preparation for the National Achievement Survey (NAS) examination, which assesses learning outcomes of school children.

With SGTs teachers and headmasters away for the survey, the teaching staff raised concerns about the impact on students’ academics, especially in the upcoming NAS examination, which is scheduled for December 4 for students of Classes III, VI, and IX.

In addition to primary school teaching staff, 6,256 staff of MRCs and around 2,000 ministerial staff of government, MPP/ZPP and aided schools in the cadre of typist record assistant, junior assistant and senior assistants have been roped for holding the survey.

Around 50,000 employees from School Education department, including the non-teaching staff from KGBVs & URS like Accountant, ANM & PET, will also be part of the household door-to-door survey.

The SGTs and PSHMs have been asked to attend the enumeration duties for the entire day on all holidays as per the instructions of the Planning department. However, services of the primary school teachers working in the upper primary and high schools have been exempted from enumeration work and these schools will function as per schedule.