Mita Mukherjee

The Bengal government on Thursday directed all state education boards to bring forward the summer vacation in state-aided schools and suspend all classes from April 22 instead of May 6, in view of the heat spell prevailing in the state over the past few days.

According to a notification issued by the state school education department addressing  secondary and primary education boards: “Considering the prevailing heat wave situation, the competent authority has decided to prepone the summer vacation in the schools under your administrative jurisdiction  w.e.f.  from next Monday i.e 22.4. 2024 except for the hill areas of Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts, where in existing academic schedule may continue until further order.”

Education minister Bratya Basu had said on Wednesday that the government was considering starting the vacation from April 22 instead of May 6 because of the heat spell.

The teaching and non-teaching staff will also remain on leave as a special case during the period till the schools reopen “subject to the directions issued by concerned Election Authorities in view of existing Parliament General Elections, 2024…” the notification said.

The schools have been asked to make suitable arrangements for conducting extra classes after re-opening of schools to make up for the loss due to the forwarding of the summer vacation in the interest of the students.

The Met office issued a heatwave alert for Kolkata and several districts in Bengal on Wednesday. The Celsius touched 40 degrees at Kolkata and neighboring districts and exceeded 42 degrees at several districts like Burdwan, Bankura, Midnapore and Purulia on Wednesday.

The state government took the decision to prepone the summer vacation following the approval of chief minister Mamata Banerjee, a source in the school education department said.

On the basis of a directive from the government the West Bengal state secondary education board on April 1 had extended the summer vacation in schools for 12 more days till June 2 for conducting the ensuing Lok Sabha general elections.

The board on April 1 had said that schools would remain closed from May 6 to June 2 this year. The schools as per the original announcement made early this year, would have remained closed for summer holidays for 10 days this year that is from May 9 to May 20. 

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