Change in Academic Year: A looming crisis for HS education in Assam

Syed Anisur Rahman

(Former General Secretary, All Assam Higher Secondary Teachers’ and Employees’ Association (AAHSTEA. He can be reached at ar781354@gmail.com)

The Assam government has issued a public notice seeking opinions on shifting the state’s academic session from the existing April–March cycle to the January–December calendar. Behind this move are certain teacher leaders who have never been associated with board examinations and are familiar only with routine class tests. If the January–December cycle is imposed, it will cause nothing short of an educational catastrophe for students appearing in board examinations.

Any experienced person who has worked closely with Assam’s secondary and higher secondary education system will affirm, with deep insight and a healthy mindset, that this change will destroy the future of lakhs of students from Classes 9 to 12 and impose an unbearable additional burden on already overworked and understaffed secondary and higher secondary teachers, who are already exhausted and on the verge of collapse. Changing the academic year is not a mere administrative adjustment. It is certainly not an attempt, under the guise of teacher leadership, to push student-centric concerns aside and impose a teacher-centric system; such an approach would be criminal in intent.

The current April–March cycle is an intelligently designed academic calendar that respects Assam’s unique geography and climate. It provides a long summer vacation throughout July—the only reason lakhs of children in the Brahmaputra Valley, the Barak Valley, the hill districts of Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao, and the riverine char-chapori areas can complete their syllabus despite annual floods and landslides. Shifting to a January–December cycle will inflict permanent damage on board-exam students. The most crucial teaching months—from late July to early September—will coincide with peak flood season, when schools remain submerged, roads are destroyed, and laboratories become unusable. Conducting project work and practical examinations by December will be impossible. The inevitable result? Large-scale failure, frustration, mental trauma, and irreparable loss to an entire generation.

To those who mislead by saying “the rest of the world follows January–December”, the answer is simple: “Assam is not America, Britain, Russia, Singapore or Sweden.” Assam lies in the extreme east of India with unique geographical conditions where 30–40% of the land remains underwater for three to four months every year. Upper, Lower, and Central Assam, Barak Valley, and the Sixth Schedule hill districts face floods and landslides at different times, with varying rainfall patterns and transport facilities. Ignoring this rich geographical diversity and repeatedly pressuring the government to change the academic session cannot be called educational development; it is nothing short of authoritarianism. The Higher Secondary syllabus under AHSEC (now ASSEB) is vast and heavily practical and project-based. Science students require practical exams in Physics, Chemistry and Biology; Arts students need project-based internal assessments; and under NEP-2020, vocational and skill-development subjects demand mandatory internships and external training. Teachers who have never handled board examinations or the related processes, and who deal only with classroom teaching and term exams, are now ideologically pushing for the January–December cycle. Such a move will be detrimental to higher secondary final-year students and must be rejected on rational grounds. Otherwise, internal assessments will have to be rushed in November–December with half the syllabus still uncovered, leaving only seven to eight effective teaching months (January to September, excluding flood-affected periods). Completing the syllabus, conducting practicals and projects, and ensuring meaningful internal evaluation will be mathematically and practically impossible in flood-hit districts. What realistic justification exists for pushing half-prepared students into board exams? Experiences from other states that adopted January–December and later reverted after protests and agitation serve as stark warnings: Tamil Nadu had to revert within three years because of floods in Chennai and the Cauvery Delta.

Kerala attempted a partial shifting but saw medical and engineering entrance ranks plummet because practical exams could not be held during the monsoon. West Bengal is currently witnessing intense unrest after the change; teachers are refusing spot evaluation because they are forced to teach the new session and evaluate the previous one simultaneously.

Assam’s geographical and natural challenges are far more severe than West Bengal’s, and its floods far more devastating.

The proposed January–December cycle will also create glaring disparity with the national system. Kendriya Vidyalayas and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas follow the April–March session. Assam’s students will lose three to four crucial months of alignment and focused preparation for national-level exams such as JEE, NEET, CUET and CLAT. Navodaya lateral entry exams are held in January–February; our students will be caught mid-session and disadvantaged while students from the rest of India prepare peacefully. Is this the “equality” we seek? Moreover, the shift will violate the spirit of NEP-2020, which emphasises reduction of stress, holistic development, experiential learning, and a calm two-year preparation period before board exams.

A simple, proven system already exists. Retain the April–March cycle, declare summer vacation from mid-June to the end of July, reduce unnecessary holidays and celebrations, and abolish winter vacation. This single adjustment will minimise loss due to floods and heatwaves while increasing actual teaching days.

Those teachers and leaders who have never been involved in HSLC or Higher Secondary final board processes (question-paper setting, evaluation, moderation, or any other board-related work) and who deal only with school-level internal exams are urged not to gamble with the future of Assam’s children. They should stop trying to equate routine class tests with board examinations simply to project false “high standards” or personal leadership and refrain from destroying the confidence, education and future of thousands of students—especially children from poor, rural and Dalit families—for the sake of ego or self-promotion. The bitter truth visible today is that in many schools where such leaders operate, 80–90% of students fail or score abysmally low even in school exams, their self-confidence is shattered, and parents are forced to spend beyond their means on private tuition. Yet these very individuals, afflicted with arrogance, continue to harass the government year after year to change the academic session on the strength of their limited experience with class tests. NEP-2020 and the Assam State School Education Board (ASSEB) have repeatedly clarified that the nature and standard of school-level examinations must not mimic board finals. Nevertheless, a section of teacher leaders and certain school heads, driven by personal agendas and self-publicity, are pushing for this change that will leave higher secondary students unable to complete their syllabus and facing extreme distress. The government has enough experienced educationists and competent resource persons capable of managing the system with high standards. They must remember that the healthy educational environment currently prevailing in the state is the result of decades of thoughtful planning based on the April–March cycle.

An academic year is not just a calendar; it is the lifeline of education in a state ravaged by geographical diversity and annual floods. We owe responsibility to the students of the Brahmaputra and Barak Valleys, the hills, and the river islands. Abandoning a student-centric approach for teacher convenience must stop. Shaping students is the true fulfilment of a teacher’s life.