UNITED KINGDOM, May 27, 2001: Schools are to be told to scrap Easter holidays and replace them with a non-religious “spring break.” Despite objections from Christian pressure groups, supporters of the proposals say a specific Easter holiday is incompatible with a modern school system because it is on a different date each year. Moving to a fixed holiday would reduce teacher stress, pupil truancy and improve exam results. The proposals say schools should celebrate non-Christian festivals such as Diwali and the end of Ramadan. Head teachers will be allowed ten “flexible days” each year to hold holidays which reflect the ethnic make-up of the school. “Many schools will now have as many as 12 religions represented in the classroom,” said Chris Price, the head of the Independent Commission on the School Year. “We want schools to be able to reflect that.”
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