CBSE session starts April 1, but early start for board classes

Ludhiana: While the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has issued guidelines to its affiliated schools to start the new academic session from April 1, the CBSE city coordinator has given relaxation to Ludhiana’s schools to commence their sessions for board classes X and XII in March.
In a circular issued by the board, it has been asked to keep the annual academic sessions from April 1 to March 31. CBSE has advised principals to “refrain” starting the session before the said dates, and to strictly follow the calendar.
The notification comes to provide relief to the students who are often stressed due to early commencement of their new session, soon after their year-end examinations.
It said: “Attempting to complete an entire year’s worth of coursework in a reduced time-frame poses risk for students who may get overwhelmed and struggle to keep up with the pace of the learning, leading to anxiety and burnout. It leaves little or no time for extracurricular activities such as life skills, value education, health and physical education, and community service, which are just as important as academics.”
CBSE city coordinator A P Sharma has instructed all the schools not to start the sessions before April. He said: “Most of the schools finish very early in January and February, and start classes in March. However, kids don’t get time to relax and early commencement of schools increase stress.”
He informed some schools had started the session on March 10, but were later stopped. However, Sharma said there was an exception for board classes and schools can start the session for classes X and XII in March.
Parents are also worried about their kids’ health.
A parent said, “The school is organising classes from March 10. The school system is such that the school wants to wind up the syllabus at the earliest. However, students also need time to revise and they are adding unnecessary burden by reducing summer break, winter break and commencing classes as early as in March.”