Panaji: Goa Education Department is expecting to start the current academic year from the month of September, this year.
The academic year in Goa begins annually during first week of June, which has been delayed due to COVID-19 outbreak in the state.
Director of Education Santosh Amonkar said that the department was hoping that they should be able to start the academic year by August 15.
“But that doesn’t seems to be happening now looking at COVID-19 outbreak in the state. We are expecting that at least by September we should be able to start the schools,” he said.
“Even if we start the schools, it would be in a staggered manner. The higher classes like that of twelfth standard would start first,” he said adding that the students in higher standards are able to maintain social distancing and abide by the guidelines.
He said that it will depend upon the Union Ministry of Home Affairs’ guidelines.
Amonkar said that the schools are asked to begin with online classes to the students, but due to issues like connectivity and gadgets, the number of students are less for such classes.
“Government has already instructed that the teachers should cover up for the students who could not make it to online classes,” he said.
Amonkar said that the Goa Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education has decided to reduce the syllabus for the academic year by 28-30 per cent.
“The syllabus will have to be reduced further, if there is more delay in resumption of the schools,” he added.
