Schools and colleges in Kolkata and several districts of Bengal will remain closed for a week from April 17 because of the heatwave-like conditions. The school education department of the West Bengal government issued a notice announcing the closure on April 16.
The temperature in Kolkata has been hovering around 41° Celsius for the past few days, according to the Indian Meteorological Department records. Many people, including children, have taken ill because of the scorching heat.
Most parents were relieved at the decision. “Children in my daughter’s class have been falling sick. My daughter complained of headache last Friday. I absolutely support the decision,” said Mousumi Roy, mother of Hemantika Roy who studies in Class III at St. Teresa Secondary School.
Many schools are switching to online classes till the weather cools down to avoid learning loss.
John Bagul, founder-principal, South City International School, said classes will be conducted online for Classes I to XII while it will be suspended completely for pre-primary students. “Though we have an air-conditioned school with children traveling in comfort, the heatwave is not to be taken lightly. We support the chief minister in thinking about the wellbeing of the students.”
The Heritage School will also hold online classes. “Considering the extremely hot weather and following the government’s advisory, The Heritage School has decided to hold online classes for the students from Monday to Saturday,” said Runa Chatterjee, headmistress of The Heritage School.
Colleges, too, have issued notices suspending physical classes. St. Xavier’s College and iLead are among the colleges that have decided to shift to online mode.
“It was becoming difficult to go to colleges. Many of our batchmates have already suffered from heatstroke. I think going online again is a wise decision now as our classes will also continue,” said Aishik Gupta, multimedia student at iLead.