Schools affiliated to state secondary education board to open on June 5

The school education department on Tuesday said the secondary schools affiliated to the state secondary education board will reopen on June 5 after an extended summer vacation that started on May 2.

The primary schools affiliated to the state primary education board will reopen on June 7.

Following the order from the government, the secondary education board issued a notice in the evening announcing the reopening date.

“The teaching and non-teaching staff shall make suitable arrangements for conducting extra classes after reopening of schools to make up for the loss due to early closure of schools. In addition, it may be said that punctuality needs to be maintained strictly by all and no staff shall leave the premises without the permission of HOI (head of institution),” says a notice signed by the deputy secretary (academic) of the board.

The dates were announced a day after the state secondary education board wrote to the education department asking about the resumption of classes after the summer break.

The department had said schools would remain closed “until further orders” when it announced that the summer vacation would start on May 2, instead of May 24. The government had extended the summer vacation because of heat wave-like conditions.

“Since the heat wave-like condition has receded a bit, we have decided to reopen the schools,” an official in the department said on Tuesday. 

“There was confusion as the department did not clarify what it meant by ‘until further orders’,” a board official told The Telegraph.

The early start to the summer vacation was preceded by a week-long closure of schools from April 17 because of a severe heat spell.

Sougata Basu, secretary of an association of teachers of government schools, said: “If we don’t get enough school days, how will we complete the syllabus? We have seen how the absence of classroom teaching (during the pandemic) impacted the performance in Madhyamik.”