Covid-19: Odisha curtails summer vacation for universities, colleges to compensate learning loss

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has decided to curtail summer vacation for all higher education institutions, including state public universities, to compensate for the academic days lost during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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In a letter to the authorities of the state public universities, government and non-government degree colleges, and teacher training institutes, Principal Secretary of the Higher Education department, Saswat Mishra, said the vacation will now be allowed for a brief period from June 1 to June 16 this year. Earlier, the summer break used to be around 45 days .

“With the curtailment of summer vacation, the higher educational institutions 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,” the letter mentioned.

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Teachers and other employees of the educational institutions would now be entitled for additional proportionate earned leave in lieu of the curtailment of the summer vacation, the letter said.

Earlier, the School and Mass Education Department had announced a curtailed summer vacation for school. The vacation in schools will be from June 6 and June 16.

Earlier, the summer break in schools used to be around 50 days . The decision to cut short the vacation has been taken to cover the syllabus which could not be completed due to closure of the institutions during the pandemic, the School and Mass Education Department added.