Winter is Vacation

With the change of examination session from March to November, the schools across the valley went into exam-mode, and most of the schools are now almost done with these exams. The students will, in a matter of days, find themselves promoted to new classes. With exams finished and the winter set in, it is time for vacation. Vandae Zchutti. But it is not the winters that earn you vacation; it is the government order that authenticates the arrival of winter, hence vacation. Laugh for a while if you want to; that is yet not subservient to any government order!

Each year, once we move into the month of December, the announcement about winter vacation from DSEK is the most sought-after news. It looks like a ‘tense’ situation where rumours and fake news fill the social media about the date of vacation. At times we have observed a sort of ‘drama’ surrounding this announcement. This drama has a Director, it has a huge audience, and it has its own script-writers. What more do you need? Laugh again.

If you are done with laughing, there are a couple of points that need to be underlined in this regard.

One, vacation is not a favour government does to schools or to the children. In any routine study plan, a long or a short break is a natural part of the schedule. The change of seasons gives it a pattern. Here in Kashmir, since we have long and harsh winters, schools are closed for a couple of months. In comparison, summer vacations are short because summers are mild in Kashmir. On the contrary, hot zones follow a reverse scheme of things. There is nothing so special, much less dramatic, in making announcements about these vacations. A mystified way in which excitement is built over this announcement is ridiculous, to say the least. A simpler way could be to identify the time slot during which schools should go for vacations, and each school would take a call on this depending on the completion of the school’s academic target. The winters here are not arbitrary. The season follows a schedule. It is God’s own government and He doesn’t need a bureaucratic nod for this. If, for example, it is decided that schools will go for winter vacations in the second week of December and the exact date is left to the schools to decide, what hell will break loose? Why should the Directorate of School Education be so fussy about it? Why should government officials, vertically and horizontally spread, make an issue out of it, as if asking for spotlight.

Two, and more importantly, these breaks have an educational value. If we consider it as suspension of studies, we are catching it from the wrong end. The mind of the government on such matters should be guided by knowledge about human nature, and not be driven by a sense of power-to-take-a-decision. Nature simplifies matters, and therein lies its beauty. Unfortunately, we complicate it and there in lies the obnoxious truth that power is a corrupting influence on a human mind. Please simplify and let the children enjoy the warmth of vacations.

Three, the annual calendar for the schools should not be an administrative affair but an academic exercise where in the needs of the children are taken into account. This obsession with uniformity, where with a single stroke of a pen all gates open or close, is a mental affliction. We have seen how the shifting of exam session last year from November to March exhibited this one-order-one-surrender malaise.

In schools we deal with live things. These are not bricks to be cast in a single mould. We have schools in different geographies with different set of challenges. We have schools with varied infrastructure. We have schools with a huge differential in amenities. We have schools with divergent student profiles. You cannot have a single standard, uniform calendar, identical expectations from all of them. In consultation with schools, prepare general guidelines and set time slots, rather than fixed dates, for various activities and breaks. Beyond that, let the schools be run by those who are meant to run the schools. Teachers and students, flanked by school management from one end and parents from another. But parents need to update themselves about the needs of schools rather than each time pressing the demand-button.

Anyways, winter has set in; God has announced the vacation. Don’t alter the divine scheme of things. Give some respite to your agitated minds that are already consumed by tomes of pending files.

And if you have time, do read Simplicity by Edward de Bono. If you don’t mind, take it as your winter work.