West-Bengal Closes All Educational Institutions For A Week When Temperatures Reach 40 Degree C

West-Bengal: Due to the “extreme” heatwave conditions, West-Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced on Sunday that all educational institutions in the state will be closed the next week.

The department of higher education and schools later stated that all of the state would be affected by the heat wave closure, with the exception of the hilly parts.

Children have recently reported experiencing headaches and other health problems after returning from school, according to Ms. Banerjee.

Due to the extreme heat wave circumstances, all educational institutions—including schools, colleges, and universities—will be closed from Monday through Saturday next week.

During this time, Mamata Banerjee asked private educational institutions to follow suit. The Chief Minister earlier in the day told a Bengali news channel, “I shall also encourage people to avoid coming out in the sun from 12 noon to 4 pm.”

According to a dispatch from the meteorological department, Kolkata’s daytime high temperature was 39.8 degrees Celsius and its nighttime low was 29.6 degrees C.

In the upcoming 24 hours, the mercury is most likely to reach a temperature of about 40 degrees C.

According to a notification from the higher education department, “due to the current heatwave situation, the competent authority in the state government has decided that all autonomous/state/central government aided and private universities/affiliating colleges in the state of West Bengal, with the exception of hill areas of Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts, will remain closed with effect from April 17 for a week or until further order, whichever is earlier.

Apart than the schools in the hilly portions of the Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts, where the regular academic timetable will continue, “all autonomous/state/central government aided/sponsored/private schools” would stay closed for one week starting on April 17.

The notification stated that the teaching and non-teaching personnel will also continue to be on leave as a special instance during the time.

According to Vijaya Chaudhuri, principal of B D Memorial International School, her institution will begin offering primary, secondary, and senior secondary students online classes on Monday with flexible scheduling, but pre-primary pupils’ classes will temporarily be suspended.

For one week, we will switch to an online teaching format similar to Covid.

Several additional private schools with ICSE or CBSE curricula, according to their spokespeople, claimed they will also hold sessions online.

Due to the oppressive weather, the West-Bengal government had previously moved up the summer break in state-run and aided schools by three weeks, to May 2.

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