RB Subba, State HRD minister informed on Thursday that the annual school calendar in Sikkim will have a shortened period of winter break. There will be a long summer hiatus to keep up with other schools in the country.
The decision comes after much deliberation among the administration, school heads and policy makers to help students be more academically qualitative and enhance the overall cognitive development of the children.
The regular winter break of two months has been reduced to 33 days and summer break has been increased from a fortnight to 25 days.
The decision has been taken in accordance with changing weather conditions in Sikkim. During the summer months, heavy rains cause a lot of road blockage in Sikkim because of which a lot of school days go un-utilized.
On the other hand the winters are not as harsh as it used to be and so the schools can utilize more of the days as working days.
For the 2018 academic session the schools are reopening on February 12. From the 2019 session onwards, the schools will start their academic year from February 1.
Under the new academic calendar, class 11 will start their academic year from June-July, to give the students enough time to prepare for exams which will be shifted to February giving them a full month to study in December.