The West Bengal school education department has asked the state’s primary and secondary education boards to start the summer vacation in government and government-aided schools on May 2 “due to heat wave and prevailing situation”.
The schools in the hill districts of Darjeeling and Kalimpong are exempt from the order.
The summer vacation in government and government-aided schools usually starts in the third week of May.
The school education department has forwarded a copy of the order to the Central Board of Secondary Education and the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination “for information and suitable necessary action”.
South Point school, which follows the CBSE curriculum, has decided to suspend classes on certain days next week because of the “extreme heat-wave like conditions expected in Calcutta”.
Classes for Nursery, Transition, and Standard IV, V, VI and VII students will remain suspended on Monday (April 17) and Wednesday (April 19), officials of the school said. Standard I, II, III, VIII and IX students will not have classes on Tuesday (April 18) and Thursday (April 20). The students of Standard X, XI and XII will have their classes as scheduled. “It will give relief to students, teachers and parents at least for two days a week.” said Krishna Damani, trustee of South Point.
The school said a decision for the week starting April 24 will be taken later “based on the weather forecast”.
The education department’s order reads: “Due to heat wave and prevailing situation, it is advised to declare summer vacation in the schools under your (the two boards) administrative control with effect from 2nd May 2023 until further instructions except for the schools in hill areas of Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts, wherein existing academic schedule will continue until further order.”
The order does not state the duration of the vacation. A senior official of the department said: “This would depend on the prevailing weather conditions.”
The order says the teaching and non-teaching staff will remain on leave till the schools reopen. “However, the teaching/non-teaching staff of schools shall make suitable arrangements for conducting extra classes after re-opening of the schools to make up for the loss due to early closure of schools...” the order says.
An official said: “We have left it to the private schools to decide whether they want to start the summer vacation on May 2.”
Last year, too, the summer vacation in government and government-aided schools had started on May 2 because of a heat spell. The government had announced at the outset that the vacation would continue till June 15.
Swapan Mandal, of the Bengal Teachers and Employees Association, said: “It is unclear how the department calculates that heat wave conditions will prevail in early May as well. Ideally, they should bring the vacation forward to April 17. What if the weather condition improves later?”