Amid extreme heat, Bengal government asks private schools to stop offline classes from May 7

The West Bengal government has asked all private schools in the state to stop offline classes from May 7 and switch over to the online mode due to the extreme summer conditions, a school education department official said on Friday.

Principal Secretary to the school education department, Manish Jain asked the private schools to hold online classes if they do not wish to advance the vacation time from May 2 as stipulated in a department notice in April.

"The private schools should not conduct in-person classes in school buildings now in the interest of students as they are falling sick in the extreme heat conditions. Also, they should not take any unilateral decision against the statement of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on this issue," the official quoted Jain as saying at a meeting with private about 30 schools' authorities.

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Banerjee in the last week of April had asked schools to advance their vacation from May 2 to June 15 in the wake of the unbearable heatwave conditions. She also requested private schools to do the same. But a large number of private schools had decided to go ahead with offline classes in accordance with the wish of a section of the guardians. The board examinations of classes 10 and 12 will continue as scheduled, the official said.

Jain had held a meeting with the authorities of around 30 privately-run schools, including South Point School. The school was recorded by the Guinness Book of Records as the world's largest school in terms of student numbers between 1984 and 1992.

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Many of the private schools had decided to continue with offline classes as a series of nor'westers lashed south Bengal districts on successive days of April 30 and May 1-2 bringing down the temperature. The state-run or aided schools, however, declared summer vacation from May 2 in line with the government notice.

"The students are wanting to attend classes physically after the pandemic-induced break of two years. We thought that as the temperature has cooled down a bit, we can carry on in this way. But from today there will be no offline classes as instructed by the government," a private school principal told PTI.