The Bengal government on Monday extended the summer vacation in schools, other than the ones in the hill districts of Darjeeling and Kalimpong, by 11 more days citing “extreme heatwave conditions”.
Schools, except the ones in the hill districts, can now reopen only after June 26.
The office of the district inspector of schools in Kolkata emailed a copy of the circular to all private schools in the city.
Officials said the government wants all schools to comply with the decision.
Several private schools said they had received the letter. Some said they would stick to their decision to resume in-person classes this week.
The La Martiniere schools and St James’ School will reopen on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, as scheduled, officials of the schools said. There are many institutions like the two that feel
a longer summer break would upset their academic calen-dar and be detrimental to the students.
Loreto House and The Cambridge School, which reopened on Monday, will go back to online classes.
“We are going back to online classes from Tuesday,” said Sarojesh Mukerjee, director, The Cambridge School.
Loreto House will start online classes on June 15, an official of the school said.
South Point School (up to Class V), which was scheduled to reopen on Wednesday, will take a decision on Tuesday, an official said.
The government said in a circular: “...with regard to declaring summer vacation in the schools due to extreme heatwave conditions, as reports of a few death cases due to heat and humidity have been received, the competent authority has decided to extend the summer vacation till 26th June, 2022, or until further instructions whichever is earlier except for the schools in hilly areas of the Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts wherein existing academic schedule may continue until further order.”
The order, signed by education secretary Manish Jain, added: “This order is issued considering the safety and security of the students in mind.”
The maximum temperature on Monday was 34.9 degrees Celsius, a notch above normal, and the minimum temperature was 29.1 degrees, two notches above normal.
The weather office has not issued any heatwave alert.
The Telegraph asked Jain via a text message whether the education department had a parameter to measure “extreme heatwave” conditions. He did not reply. Jain did not respond to calls either.
“All schools — private, government or government-aided — have been mailed the circular signed by the education secretary and they should abide by it,” an official in the office of the district inspector of schools in Kolkata said.
“There has to be uniformity in observing summer vacation by private and government schools,” the official in the office of the district inspector of schools in Kolkata said.
The circular has been forwarded for information and “with a request to issue suitable advice to the affiliated schools in the state of West Bengal” to the president/secretary of the Central Board of Secondary Education, New Delhi, and the chief executive officer, Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations, New Delhi.
The official from the office of the district inspector of schools said private schools were required to take a no-objection certificate (needed to start an institution) from the state government and hence “it is expected that they will pay heed to what the government says”.
A similar argument was made when officials of the school education department had called up private schools on May 4 to enquire whether they were continuing with in-person classes ignoring a government announcement for an early summer vacation.