Schools, colleges and universities in the city have been asking the teachers and non-teaching staff to report for work despite the chief minister’s announcement that all educational institutions will remain closed till April 15.

In several schools, teachers are turning up to upload marks of the just concluded exams, attend meetings related to preparation of results, prepare the report cards or finalise the timetable for the next session. Some are visiting the campuses to conduct online classes.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had on Monday extended the shutdown of educational institutions till April 15. She had said that “teachers will work from home” and only the employees involved in emergency administrative work such as preparing salary slips needed to turn up.

On Thursday, the Press Information Bureau issued a notice asking the states to enforce work-from-home in the private sector. “States are being requested to enforce work from home for private sector employees except those working in emergency/essential services,” the notice said.

An official in the school education department clarified to Metro on Thursday that teachers and non-teaching staff, apart from those engaged in emergency administrative work, should stay away from the campus. “The teachers and non-teaching staff should not be asked to report for work. If any work is to be done, it has to be done from home,” the official said.

“We are holding the promotion meetings in school so that when this crisis is over, we can straightaway start the new session,” said the principal of a school where teachers are expected to report for work.

At several schools, teachers and non-teaching staff are taking turns to report for work to complete pending work.

“We are not calling everybody. They are coming in very small numbers, so there is continuity when we start the next session. We are ensuring that there is no large assembly of people,” the head of another school said.

Some schools have decided to hand over the report cards to the children, for which the parents are supposed to accompany them. That would result in large gathering on the campuses.

Several schools asked teachers not to report for work only after the CBSE Class X and XII and ICSE and ISC exams were deferred.

Even when the board exams were on, it was expected that only those teachers who were associated with invigilation or evaluation would be required to turn up.

At a south Calcutta college, teachers collectively told the principal on Wednesday that they would not report for work. It was only on Thursday morning that the college sent a message to the teachers that they would not have to report for work from Friday.

“Teachers were coming for some official work like updating attendance and marks and for work regarding central government funding schemes. If the work is not done, it will be difficult to hold the semester exams on time,” the principal of a south Calcutta college said.

At some universities, teachers have been asked to take online classes. But some teachers said one had to visit the campus even to take online classes.