There is an obvious difference between the fiscal calendar and the academic calendar. But in India through some bizarre logic, the two calendars were made congruent. This was not the case in the past, even in living memory. In the Seventies, the school calendar followed the normal calendar and a new academic year began in January every year. The exceptions were the public schools in the hills which, for reasons of weather, began after the bitter cold spell was over. For some unknown reason, schools, or the various councils that set the rules and regulations about school terms and board examinations decided that the new year would begin on April 1. In other words, it would coincide with the beginning of the fiscal year. Now, there is a reversal of this position. The present recommendations of the state-run school councils in West Bengal and of the Delhi-based Council for Indian School Certificate Examination are that the new academic year should begin with the calendar year. This is, in fact, a welcome reversal.

What is important here is that the state council and Delhi-based council have agreed to follow similar guidelines. This means that school students will observe the same academic calendar, irrespective of the affiliation of their schools. This needed to be done since examinations conducted by the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education and the Indian School Certificate examination, as also the Madhyamik and higher secondary examinations are all held around the same time, in March-April. There is also some logic in making the school calendar coincide with the normal calendar. Ending the academic year in December means that children will take their class promotion examinations at the end of the year. This will enable them to enjoy their holidays in winter, the best time of the year in most parts of the country. What is critical in matters like these is a degree of consistency. Students, especially school-going ones, have in the recent past suffered from too many, and unnecessary, changes that are inflicted on them. These are changes that pertain to school terms, syllabi, timings of examinations and modes of marking script. In many of these, there are established norms that can be followed. The time children spend in school is too vital for the country’s future to be tinkered with too frequently.