A “cool” ₹3.75 lakh spent by teachers and other staff at a government-aided school in Murshidabad is expected to bring back hundreds of students who were skipping class because of the stifling heat.

The school has now installed eight air-conditioners, bought with the staff’s money.

Another government-aided school, in Nadia, had already set a precedent, with teaching and non-teaching staff pooling their own cash to get an AC for their 52 pupils.

When schools reopened after the summer vacation at the beginning of June, south Bengal was in the grip of a severe heat wave. It was ample reason for about half the 900 students at Rasora Ambika High School in Kandi, Murshidabad, to stay away.

After the teachers learnt the reason for the truancy from the children’s parents, the school, which teaches pupils from Classes V to XII, shifted the classes to morning. It didn’t help.

So, the 17 teachers, 5 para-teachers, and the non-teaching staff stitched together ₹3.75 lakh and installed air-conditioners in each of the eight classrooms.

Headmaster Diptendu Dhar said some last-minute work remained to be done, and the AC classrooms would become functional from Monday.

“The teachers and (non-teaching) staff have a ‘credit society’ where their deposited money accrues significant interest. Everyone agreed to use the interest in buying ACs,” Dhar said.

“But the interest amount was insufficient; so the teachers and para-teachers contributed between ₹50,000 and ₹10,000 each.”

Jaganmoy Chakraborty, an assistant teacher, said: “Our classrooms had turned into furnaces and students were falling sick. The fans didn’t help much. The children were getting dehydrated and some suffered heat stroke-like conditions. If students have to come to school in this situation, it’s our responsibility to protect them from the heat.”

Jayanta Singha, president of the school’s managing committee, lauded the teachers.

“It’s a praiseworthy effort by the teachers. At a managing committee meeting, we had proposed raising some money (from outside) but the teachers said they would manage everything,” he said. “They really treat their students like their own sons and daughters.”

Since it’s an aided school, government permission was necessary to install the ACs.

After the school managing committee adopted a resolution last week to install the machines, it informed the district school inspector and officials at the education department headquarters in Calcutta. They gave their nod.

The bill included the cost of the eight ACs and the expenses on modifying the windows and doors and upgrading the electrical infrastructure, a senior teacher said.

Students of Rosora Ambika High School at Kandi in Murshidabad attend a class where AC has been installed to beat the heat. Telegraph picture

Pupils at the government-aided Doharpar Primary School in Habibpur, Nadia, had already had a pleasant surprise when classes resumed after the vacation on June 10.

Their teachers had pooled around ₹25,000 of their savings and added to it ₹20,000 worth of government money, allocated for infrastructure development, to buy an AC.

“We have two classrooms and two sections. The AC has been installed in a big hall, which has been partitioned so that classes can be held for pupils of both sections in the hall,” headmaster Dipankar Sarkar said.

“We are now thinking of buying another AC. We can’t let the students suffer in this extreme heat, so we did whatever we could with our own money.”

Sarkar said the AC had helped bring back children who were skipping classes because of the swelter.

“The temperature became unbearable this year. Students fell ill; many skippedclasses. So, we came up with the proposal (for an AC) that the authorities approved,” he said.

The school now plans to install a smart TV, computers, and water purifiers for the children, a teacher said.