PANAJI
Its official, the Academic Year 2025-26 is set to commence from April 7 instead of April 1, as the government on Friday notified new Rules under Goa School Education Act,1984.
As per the new Rules the academic year for Class VI to X and Class XII will commence from April and end in March, while for the students of Class I to V and Class XI, the term will start from June and end in March.
The classes for students of grade I to V will start from June 4.
"The date of the commencement of the Academic year 2025-26 may be read as April 7 instead of April 1," Director Education Shailesh Zingade said in a corrigendum issued.
The ongoing Academic Year 2024-25 is set to end on March 30.
This new adjustment in the academic calendar will align the State board schools with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) calendar, where the academic year commences in April and ends on March 31.
The government has said that the academic year may be suitably divided into terms by the Director of Education, by issuing an order.
Accordingly, the first term will be held between April 7 to October 15 while the second term will be from November 4 to March 24, 2026.
The Ganesh Chaturthi holidays will be from August 26 to September 1 while Diwali break would be from October 16 to November 3.
The summer vacation for all classes from May 1 for a period of 5 weeks.
The annual Christmas vacation will be from December 24 to January 2.
The DoE has asked schools to ensure that the First Summative or Terminal examination will have to end by October 7 and the Second Summative exams to be held preferably before March 13, 2026. The results will have to be announced anytime after April 4, 2026
The total number of working days including examination days for the teachers will be not less than 220 days, while the instructional days will not be below 200 in the academic year.
As reported earlier, considering the summer weather, in April the classes will be conducted up to 11.30 am.
This transition aligned with National Education Policy (NEP) is expected to facilitate timely completion of the curriculum.
Group of parents had approached High Court of Bombay in Goa challenging the government decision. However the same was disposed off following the State government assurance to notify the new Rules under the Act.
The Education department had kept the draft rules open for public suggestions and had received whopping 5000 odd comments
