Summer breaks are extensively popular among students, they long for summer breaks and make a well-defined to-do list for their vacation. Educational institutions get closed for a long period of time and different students use their time differently. Well, the most common thing the majority of the student do is spend their time outdoors. It is perhaps encouraged that the students use their free time doing fun activities; school hours occupy them completely and that’s why summer learning breaks are so dearly loved by all the students.
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Nonetheless, there is a major concern regarding the detachment of students from their studies. This long break from their studies could have a detrimental impact on their academics- especially for those who are already struggling with their studies. Even today, no one really pays attention to use the summer break effectively; beside having fun, this time could also be used to foster learning and development of studies. Therefore, we must make sure that summer learning is used to gain academic knowledge.
Many researches show how teachers have to re-teach parts of their finished syllabus after the summer break gets over, the ‘summer learning loss’ is very much being neglected. That’s why, the deterioration of knowledge caused by the huge summer break requires immediate and a more significant intervention rather than re-teaching previously taught topics.
Major Concerns-
One of the major concerns that is visible after the long summer break is the disproportionality of learning loss among a cohort of students. These disproportionalities are extremely hard to control by the educational units because of the long-gap offered to the students by them and the lack of control they have over their students during summer breaks. This often happen due to different socio-economic status of different students- those who are privileged can procure knowledge through different camps and tuitions or coaching- clearly creating a huge gap between the advantaged and disadvantaged students. Low income students suffer to cope with the highly competitive school environment and they score low marks compared to their prosperous peers in core subjects.
These losses consequently increase by each passing summer break, resulting in increasing the existing gap between the disadvantaged and advantaged students. The benefits of enriching learning experiences- such as visits to cultural places and summer camps- are only available to a particular group of students. These experience kindle learning and encourage their growth; therefore, those who cannot afford these sets of elevating learning programs lag behind. Additionally, a consistent loss shown by majority of the students is their knowledge in math.
Benefits of summer learning-
High quality summer learning camps and programs are equipped to very effectively reduce the weakening of academic knowledge. We very well are aware that ‘All work and no play make Jack a dull boy’ and that’s why, summer camp and programs should not just focus on elevating the knowledge of the student, but also focus on encouraging them to have a fun time. Summer programs and camps that carefully blends academics and enrichment can reduce ‘summer break loss’ experience of the students.
Therefore, educational institutions must take initiatives to organize affordable or free summer programs for all their students. It was proven that those who continued and maintained their learning process during their summer break performed well academically compared to those who didn’t. That’s why, summer break must be looked as a time for both fun and learning.
Things which make summer camps unique-
Many summer schools chose traditional methods of teaching; therefore, they could not make any long-term impact because their methods were monotonous and the students were not intrigued by the program. That’s why, we must look for summer programs that shifts from traditional methods and make the entire experience enriching. Summer school must focus on diverse area and not just academics, it is important that they use different methods to make the entire experience more engaging.
These programs must have many field trips and physical activities, the students must be engaged in learning and also have fun. Summer breaks are incomplete without fun and if these programs stick to the traditional methods, students would refuse to go to these events.
More encouragement needed from schools-
Students are given too many unnecessary class assignments from their schools. Mostly, these assignments just increase the burden of the students, not allowing them to participate in any other form of learning. Teachers rather than engaging the students with these summer breaks homework must encourage them to join different summer programs, or continue learning during their summer breaks. The importance of summer learning should be discussed within the classrooms and students must be taught the benefits of summer learning.
Schools in India barely promote the idea of learning during summer breaks and that’s why we see a decline in interest of the students to self-learn. They must be taught the benefits of learning outside their educational institutions; these learning is not just going to elevate their academic performance, but also improve their personality development.
