The West Bengal government on Thursday called principals of private schools for a meeting and said they should either switch to online classes or bring forward their summer break, in line with what the state had ordered for its own schools, attendees said.
The hour-long in-person meeting at Bikash Bhavan, the headquarters of the education department, was attended by about 30 private school heads.
The government was represented by education secretary Manish Jain, who was accompanied by other officials.
A state government official said that during the meeting, the government reminded the principals about the April 27 circular that announced that the summer vacation had been advanced and would start on May 2 in schools, except those in Darjeeling and Kalimpong, because of the heat spell.
The official said the school heads had been told to discontinue in-person classes and switch to online teaching.
“The vacation has been advanced by the government to May 2 and will be on till June 15. Private schools are citing the improvement in weather conditions over the past few days as an excuse for continuing with offline classes. But during this span of one-and-a-half months, the temperature could surge any time, severely inconveniencing students,” said the official.
“Therefore, in the interest of the students, they have been requested to comply with the April 27 circular.”
Calls to Jain on Thursday went unanswered. This newspaper sent him a message asking why private schools were being asked to go online despite favourable weather conditions now. He did not respond.
Several school heads said the officials were polite but it was clear that the meeting was called to tell them that they had to shift classes online.
“It cannot be called a meeting because there was no discussion. A decision was taken and it was communicated to the principals,” said a school head who attended the meeting.
On Thursday morning and afternoon, schools received letters from the commissioner of school education of the Bengal government.
The letter said: “All the heads of recognised self-financed institutions managed by private bodies of Kolkata district are hereby requested to kindly attend a meeting to be held today... at Bikash Bhavan... to discuss implementation of preponing of summer vacation with effect from 02/05/2022. All district inspectors of schools are requested to remain present in virtual mode with feedback for the concerned district.”
A copy of the letter was forwarded for information and necessary action to the chairman of the Kolkata primary school council and the district inspector of schools, with a request to communicate it to the schools concerned.
