As complaints against schools conducting classes during summer vacation pour in, the Karnataka State Protection of Child Rights has written to the Education Department, asking the authorities to stop it.

According to the committee’s chairman Kripa Alva, the child rights commission had received several complaints from parents in this regard.

“Students are meant to take some time off academics during summer vacation and relax. We have issued a circular to the Education Department and have asked them to initiate action so that schools would stop conducting classes during summer vacation,” she said.

The commission, in its letter, mentions that this has to be implemented for students in all schools including government and private, and even if they are affiliated to SSLC, ICSE or CBSE. The commission awaits the department’s action report in seven days.

Worried parents filed complaints with the commission stating that children from Class 2 to Class 10 were being given extra coaching classes, and that these classes were being conducted only for the ‘poor performing’ students. According to the complaints filed with the commission, a few schools in the city are conducting extra coaching classes for children from Class 2 to Class 9.

“It is not just summer vacation, but also the break during Christmas or Dasara. We have written to the department asking them to tell schools to stop these coaching classes during any vacation. Forcing children to go for these coaching classes at school is a violation of the children’s rights,” Alva said.

According to the commission, even summer camps conducted for academic purposes violate child rights. It has asked the Education Department to ensure that summer camps are conducted for only a few hours in a day and that activities which will help the child relax must be held at these camps.