Shillong, Jan 30: The government of Meghalaya has notified all schools within the state to commence the academic season on February 15 to ensure the smooth conduct of the academic session for the year 2024.

In a notification by the Education Department on Monday, it is stated that all schools should adhere to the school calendar and follow the instructions provided by the department. Any violation will result in actions being taken against the concerned institution as per the relevant act and rules.

The school calendar specifies that the academic session will commence on February 15, and the conclusion of the academic session for pre-primary should be on November 29, while for classes 1–10, it should conclude before December 20. Winter vacations are scheduled from December 21 to February 9 of the following year.

The notification further states that apart from the winter vacation, only the holidays as notified by the state government are to be observed. No other days shall be declared school holidays by the school authorities without the approval of the government, according to the notification.

Stressing the school timing, the Education Department notifies that all schools are to adhere to school timings and plan them in such a way that sufficient instructional hours are there to comply with the provisions of the RTE Act. Schools located in Shillong and Tura, which have been advised by their respective district administrations on staggered timings, shall intimate the same to the Director of School Education and Literacy.

The Department advises that all schools shall also have an assembly session at the beginning of the school day, which should be entirely conducted by the students and will give them an opportunity to improve their communication skills. Current affairs, value education, motivational examples, etc. can be the topics of discussion.

Advising that the 100 percent syllabus should be completed on time, the department advised that all teachers should prepare their lesson plans accordingly.

Furthermore, the Department advises schools to observe 10 bagless days throughout the academic session for Classes 6 to 12, on which the students will come to school without their bags and shall be engaged in co-curricular activities such as kitchen and gardening, career counselling, tourism-related projects, life skills, music, arts and culture, and sports and games activities.

Additionally, the notification advised schools to take steps to ensure moving towards formative assessments as suggested by National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. In order to ensure this, the schools may plan to have assessments or unit tests from time to time. It is suggested that monthly or quarterly assessments be adopted, according to the notification.

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