Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday appealed to private English medium schools to start summer vacations from Friday.
Mamata said she was not sending a written instruction, but making a request. “It is an appeal from us. The holidays have already started in state-run schools. Schools have closed in several other states.”
The summer vacation in state-run schools in Bengal started on April 30. “We have closed for summer seven days in advance,” she said.
“I request English medium schools to start their vacation on Friday. Day after tomorrow is Rabindra Jayanti, so it will be better if the holidays begin from Friday,” Mamata said.
“It’s better for children to stay at home. Let them be at home and study,” Mamata said.
Several private schools had already scheduled early summer vacations this year because of the precedent of early onset of summer in the past few years.
A few of them had started their academic session in March and have closed for the summer. In some schools, this is the last working week before summer.
Birla High School, Sushila Birla Girls’ School, Birla High School Mukundapur, will close from Friday, as scheduled.
“We had already planned it, and Thursday is the last working day in all our schools,” said Brigadier (retd) V.N. Chaturvedi, secretary general, Vidya Mandir Society, which runs the three schools.
Some, like The La Martiniere schools, St James’ School, and The Newtown School, have about a week to go.
A few of them will meet on Thursday to make a decision.