Mita Mukherjee
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday announced that summer vacation in all schools in West Bengal – government-aided, government and private will be extended till June 15, in view of “heat wave.”
The chief minister said at Nabanna, the state secretariat headquarters: “ The heat wave is continuing in the state and considering the inputs we have received from the meteorological department regarding the continuance of the heat wave, it has been decided that government and private schools will reopen on June 15 instead of June 5 –for government and government-aided secondary schools and June 7 for the government and government aided primary schools.”
“ I am appealing to all government and private schools to reopen on June 15.The summer vacation has been extended by seven to 10 days,” the chief minister said.
A few hours later, the school education department issued a notice announcing the extension of the summer vacation.
“ This is to inform you that … the competent authority has decided to reopen all government, government-aided, government-sponsored/ private schools with effect from June 15….” the school education department notice read.
The school education department had earlier said that state-aided secondary schools would reopen on June 5 and government-aided primary schools on June 7.
All state run and funded schools were closed down on May 2 because of intense heat spells prevailing in most districts in Bengal at that time.
Copies of the government notice issued on Wednesday were sent to the president/secretary of the Central Board of Secondary Education, (CBSE) New Delhi and the chief executive officer, Council of the Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE), New Delhi.
The temperature in Kolkata and in several districts remained several notches higher than normal during the last two days and according to the Met office the temperature is likely to go up.
Several private schools in Kolkata were scheduled to reopen after a month-long summer vacation before June 15. In Bengal most private schools are affiliated with CBSE or CISCE.
Many private schools said they were waiting to receive the government notification and take a decision soon. Some private schools said they would abide by the chief minister’s announcement and reopen on June 15.
Heads of many government schools said summer vacation in their institutions usually starts from May 23-24 and extends till June 4 to 6. But this year schools had to be kept shut for a longer period of time and this will pose a serious problem for teachers to complete teaching the syllabus in the targeted time.
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