Many parents of students attending Indian schools have complained that the sudden change in the reopening date for the next academic session has upset their vacation plans.
Most of the Indian schools this week issued a circular stating that the schools will be re-opened on September 7 as against the earlier announced date of September 8.
School officials pointed out that they had fixed September 8 as the opening date in view of the annual harvest festival of Kerala, Onam, that falls on September 7. For decades schools have declared holiday for staff and students in view of the large number of students from Kerala.
MES Indian School principal A P Sasidharan said that they had announced the plan to open the school by September 8 in view of Onam. “But now that the Supreme Education Council (SEC) has asked us to stick to September 7 as the opening day, we will open the school on 7th itself.” Last year, SEC had allowed the schools to open on different days.
Ideal Indian School principal Syed Shoukat Ali said that Onam has been a holiday for our school for many decades. “In view of the existing practice, we decided to open the school on September 8. Now that SEC wants us to open the school on 7th, we will abide by it. However, we had mentioned in the school diary that the schedule is subject to change according to SEC directions.”
However, many parents are not enthused by the last-minute change in the schedule. They are even upset by the fact that they have to change the vacation schedule which is not very practical. They cite that the cost of difference in the ticket fare will be very high. Above all, many of them feel that they might miss the traditional Onam celebrations back home, an occasion which they very rarely get.
One of the parents said: “We had made elaborate plans for celebrating Onam at our home after so many years. We planned to have our traditional Onasadhya - the special lunch on the festival day - on 7th and immediately after that dash to the airport to catch the evening flight and reach Doha on 7th itself. Now with the reschedule, it is all in disarray and I do not know what to do.”
Another parent said that it was not possible for him to change the schedule. “We have made all the arrangements long time back. We cannot change anything now. First of all tickets will not be available and if they are available, we will have to shell out huge amounts of money as differences in fare.”
Many others felt that the schools and SEC should have discussed these issues well in advance and reached on a consensus. They also feel that very rarely expatriates get a chance to celebrate the harvest festival at home which they cannot miss. Many of them said that they would rather prefer to miss one day of school rather than changing the whole schedule. The harvest festival is the biggest festival in Kerala that brings family members together and attracts tens of thousands of tourists from abroad.
