Colleges, universities and private educational institutions will remain closed till July 31, the Bengal government announced on Tuesday.

“On May 30, the government had announced that all colleges, universities and private educational institutions will remain closed till June 30. In continuation of that order it has now been decided that closure will be extended till July 31,” education minister Partha Chatterjee told Metro on Tuesday afternoon.

Hours after the announcement, the higher education secretary Manish Jain issued a notice saying “all government, government-aided, private educational institutions, training institutions, including hostels, will remain closed till July 31 in public interest”.

The education department had in mid-June extended the closure of schools till July 31 “in public interest”.

A university vice-chancellor said extending the closure till July 31 was inevitable, considering that minister Chatterjee had on June 13 said it would not be possible to start the academic session in the middle of a pandemic.

In Bengal, the academic session in colleges and universities starts in mid-July after the publication of the Plus II board exam results in June.

This year, the Plus II board exams are still to be completed and all boards are trying various models on how to complete the pending exams.

“It has already been decided that graduating students will not sit for term exams. They will be assessed on their pre-semester results and internal assessments,” the VC said.

Another VC said the HRD ministry had already announced that campuses would remain closed till August 15. “The education department is implementing in phases what the ministry has decided.”

In a meeting with minister Chatterjee on June 13, several VCs had suggested to keep campuses closed in July, too, in view of the rising number of coronavirus patients and few transport options, an education department official said.

A VC present at that meeting said he and the others had told the minister that the World Health Organisation had projected cases would peak in July.

“We had requested him to consider the situation on the ground and defer the start of the academic session as far as possible,” the VC said.

Lockdown restrictions have been eased but transport options are still “inadequate”; so, a student will find it difficult to reach his/her institute, another VC said.

“We have been seeing how officegoers are travelling on buses disregarding distancing rules because transport options are few. If students are forced to travel like this, they will invite health hazard to campuses,” a college principal said.

“It is better to keep campuses shut as long as possible till the situation on the ground improves.”