The La Martiniere schools, St James’ School, Sri Sri Academy and several others have decided to switch to online sessions from Monday following a notice from the state government announcing that the summer vacation in the schools run and aided by it has been brought forward.
Many other private schools will decide by the weekend.
On Thursday, the bishop of the Calcutta diocese of the Church of North India asked schools under the diocese to shift to online classes.
“We have asked the schools in our diocese to suspend offline classes and shift to online classes,” said Reverend Paritosh Canning, the bishop of the Calcutta diocese of the Church of North India.
There are 15 English and 10 Bengali-medium schools under the diocese.
“Some of the Bengali-medium schools might not be able to conduct online classes, so they would have to make up for those classes when they resume in-person classes,” said the bishop.
Some of the other schools that will conduct online classes from Monday are St Thomas’ Boys’ School, St Thomas’ Girls’ School in Kidderpore and St Augustine’s Day School in Shyamnagar.
“We have the necessary infrastructure to conduct online classes, so our classes will continue,” said Supriyo Dhar, secretary, La Martniere schools.
Most schools that have made a change have decided to continue online classes till the summer vacation starts.
“The health of the children is a priority. Keeping that in mind we have decided to make this change. We will decide the details of the online classes over the weekend,” said Gargi Banerjee, principal, Sri Sri Academy.
This is the third consecutive year that the government has announced an early summer break because of the searing heat.
Private schools in the past have shifted to online classes, albeit grudgingly.
“If a child falls sick despite the government’s advisory to keep schools closed, what will we do?” said an official of a private school.
“We were contemplating further reducing our hours... because of the unbearable conditions. With no respite in sight in the near future, it is best to keep schools closed and shift to online classes,” said Terence Ireland, principal, St James’ School.
Calcutta Girls’ High School reduced the hours further on Thursday and the classes
are ending for the day at 10.30am.
The BSS School said they will run online classes from May 6. Till then they will
continue with in-person sessions.
The Julien Day Schools in Calcutta, Howrah, Kalyani and Ganganagar have reduced their hours. “We have to understand that this is a climatic change and children have to learn to adjust to it,” said Terence John, director, education and development, Julien Day Schools.