Gandhinagar: The Government of Gujarat today took decision to scrap Navratri vacation this year in schools and colleges. The government had introduced Navratri vacation last year. A portion of Diwali vacation was shifted to Navratri vacation.

Education minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama today said, the state cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani today took decision to scrap Navaratri vacation. With this, Diwali vacation will be 21-day long like it was in the past.

Chudasama said the decision was taken after prolong discussion, in view of representations received regarding Navratri vacation.

Several schools had protested State government’s decision to give Navratri vacation last year. In Surat, majority of schools had boycotted Navratri vacation and continued with longer Diwali vacation defying the State government order. The school operators in Surat had argued that curtailing Diwali vacation to give Navratri vacation was improper because lakhs of workers involved in diamond and textile industries would like to spend the period of Diwali vacation in their native places outside Surat. If Diwali vacation is curtailed, they would not be able to spend time in native places. They had also argued that most of the schools would conduct exams after Navratri, and therefore the children would not be able to enjoy Navratri vacation anyway.Tour operators had also protested goverfnment’s decision to curtail Diwali vacation and shift a portion of Diwali vacation to newly introduced Navratri vacation. Tour operators argued that due to shorter Diwali vacation period, people would not be able to design holiday tours.

Contrary to other States, Gujarat celebrates Diwali festival for five days. Barring convent schools, the State has no system of Christmas vacation. Diwali vacation is favorite period for domestic travel due to winter.

Last month in a meeting led by Education minister Chudasama, a decision was taken for Navratri vacation in schools and colleges of Gujarat between 30th September and 7 October (8 days) while Diwali vacation period was declared between 25th October and 6th November (13 days). This detail was shared by the State government in an official statement. In just ten days, the State government has changed its decision.

DeshGujarat