Schools in northern states have more working days than rest of India

When it comes to the number of teaching days in state-funded primary schools, Indian states differ widely. Schools in Kerala have an average 192 instructional days in an academic year while schools in Jharkhand have as many as 249 days, say statistics.

States such as Punjab (243), Bihar (241), Haryana (236) and Uttarakhand (234) have far more number of school days compared to the rest of India. Northeastern state of Meghalaya (192) is at the bottom with Nagaland (199), Mizoram (200) and Jammu & Kashmir (204) not far behind, says the data compiled by the District Information System for Education (DISE) for 2014-15.

The figures clearly suggest a huge difference in the workload of government teachers in India. This also suggests disparity in the efficacy of public education system and learning outcomes in different states. Experts also link more workload with the higher absenteeism of teachers in some states.

On an average, the number of working days in India at the primary school level is 226. It is well within the national curriculum framework guidelines which recommend 220-230 instructional days every academic year. In the US, the norm is 180 days which is being criticised since long as experts say more instructional days help students to learn more.

Maharashtra has 225 instructional days while Gujarat has 227 days. Interestingly, the average school days in India have gone up from 222 to 226 in the last five years. A comparative analysis of 2010-11 and 2014-15 reveals that Jharkhand, Punjab, Haryana and Bihar have added 8-15 more school days in the same time period.

The huge difference in working days of teachers is credited to many factors including climate conditions and lack of uniformity in school holidays. There are other factors leading to unwanted closure of schools. "For instance, political pressure in Maharashtra for Ganapati holidays, natural calamities such as annual floods in Assam, weather and law and order situation in case of Kashmir and a few northeastern states, naxalism and insurgency in a few parts of India," said an expert.

"Actual instructional days could be less than the government figures as we don't know how much teaching takes place in the school even on those days," says Farida Lambay, the co-founder of the NGO Pratham.

Instructional days do include exam days, half day festival celebrations and even those days when teachers are on long leave, admits an education official from Maharashtra.

Educationists say more instructional days help students to learn more. "More the instructional days, more would be learning time especially in case of children from poorer backgrounds where the stimulation at home is far less than that in school. We have observed that learning levels in children dip after long holidays," says RP Singh, principal in a government school of Uttar Pradesh.

"In a city like Mumbai or Delhi, most kids spend holidays watching TV and computer games. This puts extra-burden on teachers when schools reopen after long holidays to bring the kids back to studies," says Mrinal Gupta, a Delhi-based teacher.

Teachers also say that 220-230 school days are not only good for the mental growth of children but also for the physical and mental well-being of teachers. "There's sufficient time to complete the portions and give children the space to be themselves. If schools operate for lesser time than that, the stress on children rises which often makes them sick leading to absenteeism. Same happens with the teachers," says a teacher from a civic school in Mumbai.

However, some experts feel that more instructional days don't necessarily mean better learning outcomes. "The concern should be how much of school time is utilized for teaching. Government teachers are forced to do non-teaching work, often at the cost of teaching hours," says educationist Dr Arundhati Chavan, in-charge director of Centre of Distance Education, SNDT women's university, who also heads Teachers and Parents Association.

Perhaps that is why private schools affiliated to ICSE, CBSE and international boards have better results than government schools. "They have more structured but less number of school-days compared to government schools. Most of them have five day schools and thus their teachers are less burdened compared to us. Still their results are often better than us as their teachers put in more time in teaching while we are deployed for census and poll duty", says a civic school teacher of Mumbai.

This is alarming mainly because state-run schools mostly cater to poor children. This means India has to go a long way to ensure quality education even as it mandated elementary education to kids aged 6-14 under Right to Education Act in 2009.

Lambay links the higher number of schooling days with absenteeism of teachers. "Possibly due to more burden teachers' absenteeism is high in Jharkhand and other northern states compared to others. This is a complex situation as irregularity of the teachers affects the learning outcome drastically," she said.

A recent World Bank study says that teacher absenteeism in rural schools in India is costing the government $1.5 billion annually, representing 60 per cent of the entire revenue collected from the education cess used to fund the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan.

The study based on unannounced visits to 1,200 rural government schools, found 25% of teachers were absent from school, and only about half were teaching. Absence rates varied from 15% in Maharashtra to 42% in Jharkhand.

While Chavan bats for a uniform policy for school holidays at the Centre level with no local interference, Lambay thinks otherwise. "Holidays can't be uniform due to diversity of India."

Bottom Five

States

Number of Instructional days (Govt & aided primary schools)
Meghalaya
192
Kerala
196
Nagaland
199
Mizoram
200
Jammu and Kashmir/Arunachal
204

Top five

State

Number of Instructional days (Govt and aided primary schools)
Jharkhand
249
Punjab
243
Bihar
241
West Bengal
239
Haryana
236