Mita Mukherjee

The Calcutta Diocese of Church of North India (CNI) announced on Friday that all institutions run by the diocese will reopen and begin in-person classes from June 20.

The schools under the diocese had to shift to online classes following an order of the state government issued on June 13 asking all schools in the state to extend summer vacation till June 26 citing “extreme heatwave conditions” prevailing in the state.

A notice to the heads of all the CNI schools issued by the Bishop House today said: “Kindly note, in view of the improvement in weather conditions, our Bishop, The Rt Revd. Dr Paritosh Canning, Bishop of Calcutta, CNI, is directing the Heads of Institutions of The Diocese of Calcutta, CNI (ICSE/ISC/DA getting and Private Schools) to reopen their respective institutions from Monday 25^th June, 2022 and begin offline/ in-person classes for the students of all the classes. This is for information and compliance of all concerned.”

Many of the private schools, including those run by the CNI, that were scheduled to reopen this week decided to shift to online classes.

The two La Martiniere schools, St James’, Pratt Memorial, St Thomas schools are some of the institutions run by the CNI.

After the government issued the order on June 13, the CNI had said that “reports of a few death cases due to heat and humidity” in the government order had prompted them to opt for online classes.

The CNI had said that they had shifted to the online classes because they did not want to risk the safety of the children. But the church would keep watch on the weather and if there is any improvement in conditions they would take a fresh call.

According to Regional Meteorological Centre Kolkata though the onset of monsoon has been delayed in West Bengal, conditions are favourable for the advancement of southwest monsoon in southern parts of the state including Kolkata in the next two or three days.  

Also read: Schools grapple with children’s socio-emotional loss after reopening