Lots have already been discussed on this and so now at almost the end of 2022 we do not need much to discuss this. I have discussed this issue in some previous articles. 

Still there are some things that I would like to add. As also a teacher I have some particular experiences with students who are back to school after such extended lock down. I would like to share and speak a few words on that. 

Back to school issues after the pandemic have two different implications, one is related to the health of students (and teachers as well), and the other one is related to the academic performance of students. About health, I have already written before. With almost fading of the pandemic the health issues are duly getting backseat to the academic issues. 

In the two years of pandemic, students incurred extensive loss in their academic performance and even worse in academic appetite. I can see students are doing so poorly in almost all subjects, and especially in Science and Mathematics. And also they lack the zeal to do well and their interest in studies and career have got much damped which is a more alarming implication. 

Subjects like Mathematics and Science are already a great challenge to many students from the ancient times. Students try hard to cope up with the help of school teachers and home tutors. Eventually these subjects also offer the best range of accessible careers for most students. So hardly anyone can undermine them, and at the school level everyone needs to qualify in them. 

Total closure of schools and ineffective online classes resulted in a big vacuum in the area of school studies. After going back to school, students are having a very tough time coping with their studies, in almost all subjects and often especially in Maths and Science. 

Students, teachers and parents all are worried and trying to find out ways to make things a bit better and easier. So what can be done to cover up the vacuum at the best possible pace? That is a question many teachers and parents will be busy searching for quite some time. And there is no shortcut answer to this problem. Covering up two junior years of lag in studies in one senior year is not so easy in the case of Maths and Science. In Mathematics the syllabus of all the classes are quite interrelated and almost cumulative. So without doing the previous two junior class syllabus properly, grasping the next senior class syllabus is not possible in most cases. In Science, though the condition is not as rigid as in Mathematics, there still has to be a lot of struggle. 

So what can be done about this crisis condition in education? There can be quite a few things that will be useful to do at this time. Out of them the foremost important thing can be getting a good home tuition of the respective subjects. Classes will continue as it usually does in the school. But the gaps will remain. Those gaps will affect the understanding of the current curriculum. A home tutor can help in this condition much better than the school teacher or even a tutorial teacher. Individual level care and guidance can play a crucial role in quick recovery. 

Beside getting the home tutor, the student needs to give some extra effort to his or her studies than that in usual conditions. Some extra time, some extra workload, can help to make a very good progress. It is best to make a daily time table for study hours and keep a track on the duration of studies. Better time management can lead to much better outcomes in a minimum time frame.  The student needs to create a comparative log for recording his or her study duration of Maths and Science with respect to other subjects. A lot of systematisation can be and has to be achieved in the daily routine and the student has to follow that keeping in mind that these are all they are doing for betterment of his or her life and career. 

The next advice is mainly for the home tutors or a little bit for the school or college teachers. Already I have said that there is no shortcut for covering up this condition. So teachers also need to work a little bit hard to help the students cope up with the situation. Proper lesson planning, study notes and other learning material provisions are some of the steps that can become highly fruitful. Teachers may need to teach the essential parts of the previous class’s curriculum whenever and wherever necessary. 

All these are more feasible for a home tutor than a college or school teacher. Still they also can help by preparing an inclusive lesson plan and customising a wider curriculum range. They can provide a few extra classes to cover up that customised and wider curriculum. A little extra effort from both the sides of the students as well as the teachers can solve the problem in the best possible way and in the quickest possible time. 

Schools and colleges are required to make their exam question papers a little lighter and more flexible than they usually do. Tough question papers can not only make the students score less, but can be highly responsible to break their confidence or intimidate them. They will feel much less confident on their subjects. That is not at all a desired situation. 

Ideally exams should encourage and inspire students to study even better and score even higher. But if they start self-doubting about their own capabilities then achieving higher academic performances can turn into a major challenging affair. That will be of no good for the student and neither for the whole educational ecosystem. 

After this pandemic, there are enough reasons to make students come back to their academic form, their educational appetite, to make students get back to school. So this time is not for taking discriminative exams to make them compete with each other and then classify the students accordingly, but to nurture an environment of mutual cooperation, develop good team work and team spirit, develop individual qualities and virtues, as well as helping others to achieve their respective developments. 

This time is more about helping than about competing. Administrations of educational organisations are supposed to understand and reflect on such principles. Classification and discrimination of students according to their academic abilities will continue to happen in the obvious and natural ways in coming years. Pushing for that in this very year will not serve the actual purpose and as a result many possibly performing students also will get outperformed. That will invariably result in a flawed outcome. 

This was about back to school from pandemic lockdown. This is not a regular issue. The next ones are more frequent and regular, thus that will deserve more careful consideration and implementation. 

Vacation is one important part of almost all academic processes. Schools are more used to it. Students are usually at a crucial point of mental as well physical growth. Without the significance of the word ‘growth’ the purpose of student and education does not stand. And the relation between growth and education can never be exaggerated. And also the relation between growth and vacation cannot be exaggerated. 

Growth and nourishment requires enough time and space. Vacation is such a space for students where they can find time to rest and grow. Already the education system has a lot of pressure which is increasing day by day. With population and associated competition, the pressure is sometimes fierce. And that is not so favourable for holistic growth of young minds and bodies. So vacations are like neutralizers.

You must be wondering that in the discussion on back to school why I am emphasising on vacation. There is a definite purpose for this. Before proper planning of back to school from vacation, understanding the role, purpose and importance of vacation becomes necessary. Otherwise it may feel like the opening of the school is solely important and vacations are for waste. That will create a judgemental imbalance between vacation and school days. Actually both have their own importance. 

Once we understand and accept the value of vacation, we will start to ask for more of it. But too much can also be harmful for the students’ academic growth. The transition from vacation to school has to be well planned and crafted to equip the student with maximum efficiency in his or her studies. Also the transition from school to vacation needs some good and purposeful planning. 

Schools do their own planning and usually put assignments accordingly. But parents also play a very crucial role. They also need to have plans for their child’s vacations. The plans are to make the maximum out of the vacations. And that getting the maximum are not just in terms of studies but also about physical and mental health and wellbeing, nurturing of creativities and extra curricular activities, enjoyment and entertainment, food and rest. 

Home tutors also play a very important role in the vacation. A student with a good and knowledgeable home tutor is like having a boon. Home tutors can help the student to continue the school studies and complete the curriculum and assignments but all that in the mood of the vacation. Home tutors can also help the student to cultivate and nurture the creative and cultivative sides of the student. 

Thus in the back to school process the parent, home tutor and school teachers all are to work in synch to make it purposeful and effective. By now we have somewhat realised the benefits and possible yield of vacation for school students. It can be even more productive if it can be better designed and utilised. But one thing we need to keep under our consideration, that vacation should not be over-pressured by assignments. School students are already bearing a lot of pressure in their regular school days. Vacations are times for rejuvenation, so that the students can be back to school with a high level of energy and enthusiasm. 

This realisation is one of my main purposes for writing this long how-to, thus it is not just about how-to finish the vacation but also about how to realise and optimise the idea of vacation. A good vacation would naturally provide for a fresh and more effective back to school for the students. So much of a better how-to back to school is hidden under how-to take and use the vacation. 

Vacations are for multiple purposes, like, rest, refreshments, extracurriculars and studies. Studies also can vary from regular school chores to something different, or the same thing but in a different way. If properly used, vacations can become a great rejuvenator and performance enhancers for most students. But wrong utilizations can on one hand make them exhausted or maybe quite lazy. Both are not desirable. So a planned and balanced vacation plan is necessary, and so does a vacation ending plan. We are here discussing the relevance of vacation ending and hence not going much into vacation planning. 

If the vacation went well, then naturally many students would not at all prefer to get back to school. Keeping the motivation itself can become a great challenge for parents. Here the role of school also gets very over-emphasised. The way the school administration maintains and sometimes even decorate with enhancements, that can determine a major source of inspiration and motivation. If the students can take their school as their own place of minute achievements and successes, then they can even count days of opening their schools. Also the cause of socialisation becomes another magnetic factor. 

But if the school experience of a student is not so good, then for him or her getting back to school after a vacation can become even harder and painful. Teachers and parents need to play a very meticulous role for the rehabilitation of such students. School environment, including the behaviour of teachers and students should be not only good but act as a catalyst for academic as well as holistic personality development. Because for many students schools are the highest socialising point. 

Teachers can plan out a few things to make this back to school comfortable and happy for all students. Let me summarise a few below – 

1. The home assignments should not be too much, especially for the junior and middle school students. Vacations are supposed to be spent a little differently than normal school days. But too few assignments also can do more harm than better. Afterall the student should feel connected with his or her classes even in the vacation days, so that they can return more easily and readily as the school reopens. 
2. Home assignments can include some interesting project work. That can promote active learning in students even in the vacation days. Students can enjoy doing attractive and interesting projects. Also there will be a small achievement factor behind the success of the projects. Project topics and subjects have to be selected accordingly. 
3. It is better not to host an exam just after the vacation. Many students plan trips during vacation with their families. Many others plan for some extracurricular learning according to their likings and passion. Development of passion subjects are very important for a student as that can considerably reshape his or her whole career as well as life in later days. So instead of any discouragement and demotivation, school and parents need to find ways to inspire and promote such passions. 
4. Often underlying exam pressure spoils the purpose of a vacation. A student may remain internally panicked or at least afraid about the exam. So in all respects, it is advisable to host exams after a few days of rehabilitation in school classes after a vacation. 
5. There can be perks or awards on projects given in a vacation. That will motivate students even more, to do better in their projects and also the associated sense of achievement will help them to do even better at studies and exams. After all, every success and wellbeing can be connected to the right self confidence and the right attitude. So development of these is far more important than learning books and writing in exams.