Andhra Pradesh half-day schools: Students rejoice but why are parents, teachers concerned? 

Andhra Pradesh students from Class I to Class IX expressed their delight on the first day of their half-day school on Monday, April 3. They came to the school by 7.45 am and left the school by 12.30 pm after taking their mid-day meal at the school itself. The School Education Department is implementing half-day schools from April 3, Monday, onwards across the state for all management schools in the state. It was based on a report of meteorology from the Department of Disaster Management, the department announced half-day schools from April 3 Monday to April 30, as stated in a report by The New Indian Express.

“The second Saturday in April will be a working day and the government holidays in April will be treated as compensated working days," said S Suresh Kumar, Commissioner of School Education.

Pattika Radhika, Class V, GP School, Muliguda village, Parvathipuram Manyam District said, “We felt very happy with the half-day schools. Till today we felt uneasy with the souring sun. As the second half of the school holiday. I am enjoying my Drawing and reading the story books.”

For students from Class I to Class IX who are studying at the 3343 SSC examination centres, the school will be closed and classes will be conducted for them on government holidays but the instructions won’t affect the SA 2 exams scheduled for them.

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And the confusion and pressure begin...
Meanwhile, the school managements are under pressure to conduct the classes on compensatory holidays between April 3 and 30 and the parents' associations are under confusion as most of them are minority-related religious holidays.

Commissioner Suresh Kumar, in his orders, also stated that measures should be taken to ensure sufficient drinking water and keep Oral Re-Dehydration Solutions (ORS) packets available at the schools to overcome the impact of sunstroke on students.

Parents say
Sikharam Narahari, State President of the Parents Association, while speaking to The New Indian Express, said that the private SSC examination centres are taking classes against the rules. K Chandra Shekar, State President of the Private Schools Association, said that there is confusion regarding conducting compensatory classes as the holidays fall on April 7 (Good Friday), April 8 (Jagajjevan Rao's Birth Anniversary),  April 9 (Sunday), April 14 (Ambedkar's Birth Anniversary), April 16 Sunday, April 21/22 which needs to be declared as Ramadan and April 23 (Sunday) and it may result in problematic issues from the group of people as these are their religious holidays.