Maharashtra Education Minister Vinod Tawde today said that the order on the number of teaching days was an old one and as long as schools clocked the stipulated teaching hours, there was nothing wrong if they had a five-day week instead of a six-day one.
Member of Legislative Council Kapil Patil had approached the minister after a school was found to be not completing the stipulated hours with its five-day week schedule.
According to Patil, it is very difficult for children to attend the school for six days, so the government should make five-day week mandatory.
Patil met Nand Kumar, Principal Secretary, School Education, and submitted a letter in this regard.
"Children need to have time for recreation. However, as there are many schools in the city and state which have a six- day week, I have asked the government to make the five-day week mandatory," Patil said.
To this, Tawde said there was no change in the April 2011 order regarding the number of days a school has to function.
The Right to Education Act stipulates the number of teaching hours per week and not the number of days, Tawde said, adding that schools are free to decide the number of teaching days and no new order regarding this has been issued by the state government.
