West Bengal: Summer vacations in schools commence from today amid COVID-19 surge

By Team Newsable | First Published Apr 20, 2021, 3:26 PM IST

Summer vacation for government schools was scheduled to begin on May 7. Since mid-February, students of Classes 10, 12 and teachers were attending the schools.

The government of West Bengal has decided to commence the summer vacations for school students in the state from today, April 20, in view of the rise in Covid-19 cases across the state in the past few weeks.

Summer vacation for government schools was scheduled to begin on May 7. Since mid-February, students of Classes 10, 12 and teachers were attending the schools.

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Any preparations for the board exams will be done online, if needed. Class 10 boards in Bengal are due on 1st June and class 12 from June 15.

The schools have been shut in West Bengal once again, soon after the resumption of physical classes in the state. The students of classes 9 to 12 had started attending offline classes in the state from mid-February due to the upcoming board exams.

The education minister of the state has said that he would also urge private schools to follow suit and prepone the summer vacations. The decision comes amid reports of many teachers in schools testing positive in the past two months.

The headmaster of a state-run school in Jadavpur, however, told PTI that online classes will continue for students of Class 10 and 12 during the vacation "or the early phase of the vacation" so that students don’t suffer any sort of academic loss.

Education Minister Partha Chatterjee had also announced a few months ago that the board exams for Class 10 and Class 12 students in the state will be conducted in June this year, for the health and safety of all the students and staff.

With the rapid increase in active COVID-19 cases, several states and Union Territories have shut down schools, colleges, universities and other educational institutions. States including Haryana, Odisha, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan have closed down schools and colleges in the state.

Many states have postponed their board exams for this academic year and have plans to conduct them in the month of May or June due to the current spike in Covid-19 cases across the country. A lot of states have not announced the final dates of the board exams yet.

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