Mita Mukherjee

The Bengal government on Wednesday decided to allow state aided schools affiliated with the state secondary and primary boards to change their timings for June considering the “local weather condition.”

 The districts in South Bengal had been reeling under scorching heat with high humidity over the last several days. The advisory asking the schools to change their timings has been issued by the state school education department to ensure that students did not fall sick because of attending schools during the day, an official of the school education department said.

However, the advisory directed the schools that they should ensure that academic activities or administrative works like distribution of mid-day meal do not get affected because of the changed timings.

The advisory applies to all state-aided primary, middle and secondary schools.

In response to the state government advisory the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE) asked the schools to adjust the timings according to their convenience but normal functioning of the schools should not be disrupted, an official of WBBSE said.

Several places of South Bengal including Howrah, South 24 Parganas, North 24 Parganas, Hooghly, Purba Midnapore, Paschim Midnapore, Purba Bardhaman, Paschim Bardhaman, Purulia, Bankura, Murshidabad, Nadia and Birbhum had been facing hot and humid weather with temperature varying between 35 and 43 degrees Celsius over the past few days.

The advisory said: “ Considering the prevailing heat wave situation in different parts of the state, I am directed to request you to kindly issue an advisory to the Govt/ Govt aided/Govt, sponsored Upper Primary, Secondary, Higher Secondary School Authorities under WBBSE, so that they can take local decision on shifting the school timings in consultation with stakeholders, as per local weather condition for remaining academic days of June 2024, if needed, without  hampering the academic activities including the Mid-Day meal programme for the interest of students…”

The schools in Bengal reopened on June 10 after a long summer vacation that started on April 22.

Heads of many schools welcomed the move because the institutions had been recording low attendance after the reopening of the schools.

According to the heads, usually the education department or the boards affiliating the schools take the final decision on whether the schools would remain closed or not beyond allotted holidays. But this is the first time the individual schools have been given the responsibility to decide on their own whether they would keep their institutions shut or not. This has been dome because the weather conditions had not been uniform across the state, according to a board official.

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