High Court orders Kerala govt to ensure 220 working days in schools

Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Friday directed the state government to ensure 220 academic days, excluding examinations and co-curricular activities, in schools from next academic year as prescribed under the relevant acts.

Justice K Vinodchandran issued the direction on a petition by PT Suresh who claimed his two children studying in different schools were not getting proper education as the schools did not function for prescribed days.

As per the Right to Education Act, 2009 schools must provide 200 working days for class I to V and 220 for class VI to VIII.

The Kerala Education Rules also prescribe 220 educational instructional days excluding the days of examinations in every academic year.

The state government submitted that the minimum number of instructional days could not be achieved by some schools due to unpredictable reasons like sudden holidays, hartals, etc. They stated that they were taking all possible steps to ensure the said working days.

The petitioner produced the educational calendar issued by the schools for 2015-16 which showed only 200 working days including 34 examination days.