Madhyamik Board revises summer holidays due to heat
Kolkata: The West Bengal Board of Secondary Education on Monday revised the summer holidays stating that it will begin from May 6 (Monday) and will continue till June 2 (Sunday). The total duration of the summer holidays will be 22 days, excluding holidays and Sundays.
In the earlier notification, summer holidays in schools for this year were from May 9 to 20. Meanwhile, in a notification issued on Monday, the WBBSE also notified the closure of schools in the backdrop of the ensuing Lok Sabha polls when most of the schools act as polling stations.
In districts of Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar, schools will remain closed for a period of five days from April 16 (Tuesday) till April 20 (Saturday) as these three Parliamentary constituencies (PC) are set to go for polls on April 19 (the first phase of elections).
Schools in districts of Darjeeling, Kalimpong, North Dinajpur and South Dinajpur will be closed for 4 days from April 24 (Wednesday) to April 27 (Saturday) owing to the elections in PCs — Darjeeling, Raiganj and Balurghat — on April 26 during the second phase of polls.
Elections in Bengal will be held in seven phases from April 19 to June 1 with the counting scheduled to take place on June 4.
Last year, because of the excessive summer heat, the summer vacation that was slated to start from May 24 was advanced to May 2. The summer holidays had continued till June 15.
Chandan Maity, general secretary of Advanced Society For Headmasters and Headmistress’ was critical of WBBSE that notified summer holidays this year till June 2.
“Counting for the Lok Sabha elections is scheduled on June 4. A number of schools will act as counting venues and there will be deployment of Central Forces, so how can the Board open schools on June 2?” questioned Maity.
