Summer vacation in government and aided schools will end on June 9 instead of June 30.
Hours before a higher education department notification announced the decision formally on Thursday, education minister Partha Chatterjee took to his Facebook page and wrote that such a change was coming.
“Summer vacation as notified has been amended. The schools-primary, secondary will reopen on 10th of June, 2019,” the minister posted on Facebook at 3pm.
The minister’s Facebook post on Thursday afternoon was lauded and the government had reviewed the earlier decision after social media users expressed outrage and demanded revocation of the long summer break.
The minister’s decision on Thursday was lauded on social media with some users hailing it as a “wise decision”, unlike the outrage of the previous day.
Schoolteachers felt that the curtailed vacation would give them more time to teach the syllabus, especially to students in the senior classes.
“The exams for students of classes X and XII is in November and teachers have to complete the entire syllabus in
the next few months. Cutting down the vacation by 20 days would benefit the students,” said Chandan Maity, headmaster of Krishnachandrapur High School in Mathurapur.
The government order on Thursday was addressed to the president of the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education, West Bengal Board of Secondary Education and West Bengal Board of Primary Education.
“Considering the changed weather conditions, dated 3rd May 2019 issued by School Education Department, Govt of WB has been reviewed and it has been decided that the schools will remain closed upto 08.06.2019 and will open on 10.06.2019. You are therefore requested to advise all schools under your respective control accordingly,” the fresh order says. June 9 is a Sunday.
The minister on Tuesday had said that the government would review the decision so that the duration of the vacation did not exceed the usual period and that a formal decision would be taken after consulting the chief minister.
This year the extended summer vacation started on May 3 and was to continue till June 30. The leave that was granted to schools for cyclonic storm Fani was clubbed with the summer vacation, which resulted in a much longer break than usual.
The demand to open schools was in response to Chatterjee’s Monday post on Facebook, where he had sought suggestions on “improvement to achieve higher excellence in our education system”.
Almost immediately the post had invited several comments on withdrawing the long summer break that was setting a “bad precedent among the students,” and to “reconsider your decision regarding summer vacation”.
Teachers are trying to inform students about the curtailed vacation through social media.
Some schools in the villages, however, said that they would also try to inform students about the changed date by announcing over mike in their neighbourhoods.
