School education department in Andhra Pradesh revises Sankranti holidays

VIJAYAWADA: The school education department on Saturday issued orders revising the Sankranti holidays for schools. Commissioner of school education S Suresh Kumar issued a notification declaring holidays for seven days for schools from January 12 to January 18.
The state government earlier issued a notification declaring six days of holidays for Sankranti holidays from January 11 to January 16.But on Saturday it revised the earlier order as per the instructions of education minister Botsa Satyanarayana. The fresh notification stated that the holiday schedule is revised upon receiving a huge number of requests from the public.
Meanwhile, parents are unhappy over the sudden change in the schedule of holidays. Many of them had made bus and train reservations for January 10 or January 11 and they would not have to postpone their journey. Similarly they booked return journey tickets on January 16.
“Sankranti is an important festival for us. Most of the people celebrate in their native villages. Train and bus reservation is a key issue as ticket fare will be very high if we book tickets at the last minute. We have reserved tickets to Visakhapatnam for January 10. We have to cancel them now and book afresh. APSRTC buses are almost full and we are now forced to book tickets in private buses at higher prices,” said K Sudhakar Rao, a parent.
Teachers’ associations welcomed the decision to increase the number of holidays. “Most of the students go to their home town for Sankranti. The government earlier proposed to reopen schools on January 17, which is celebrated as Mikkanuma. We support the decision of reopening schools on January 19,” said K Rambabu, a teachers’ union activist.