Calcutta, May 15 :    Calcutta, May 15:  After enforcing a ban on private tuition and extracting undertakings from teachers, the ruling Left Front appears determined to slash annual holidays in educational institutions in the city and elsewhere in Bengal. Pushing aside protests against the impending measure from the various Left and non-Left teachers' lobbies, the government has begun an exercise in slashing the long list of holidays on the grounds that the students need to be given expanded study hours. State school education minister Kanti Biswas has already discussed the matter with president of West Bengal Board of Secondary Education Haraprasad Samaddar and suggested that holidays in educational institutions be trimmed to increase study time for students. 'We think 80-day annual holidays have to be slashed to increase working hours in schools,' Samaddar told Metro. He felt only banning private tuition would not help the administration stem the rot in the education system. 'Barring summer and Puja vacations, a teacher should not be allowed to enjoy any other lengthy vacation. So, if we scrap the week-long Christmas holiday in government-aided schools, the number of holidays can be reduced to 72,' he observed. Samaddar will initiate a dialogue with members from various teachers' lobbies on May 20. 'We will have to bring home the point that slashing vacations is the need of the hour to improve the quality of education,' he added. Kanti Biswas said on Wednesday that he will soon meet teachers representing various organisations to discuss the issue. According to Samaddar, plans are afoot to impose more restrictions on arrival and departure of teachers and their presence in classes. 'A teacher will have to take 29 classes every week and has to be present for five hours in school,' he added. Officials said the proposed cut in holidays will affect over three lakh teachers in nearly 12,500 secondary schools and 50,000 primary institutions. Though the CPM-controlled All Bengal Teachers' Association (ABTA) hailed the government's decision on annual holidays, other non-CPM teachers' bodies were up in arms. Dubbing the move 'fascist' , members of the Secondary Teachers' and Employees' Association (STEA) said they would launch a statewide agitation to pressure the government. 'The 80-day annual leave for teachers is justified. It allows students to make a fresh start after the vacation,' observed STEA president Ratan Laskar. He warned that any effort to slash annual holidays would be scuttled. 'We had annual leave for 87 days earlier, but this was slashed to 80 when the new academic session came into effect in 1989. Any further attempt to reduce our holidays will be opposed,' Laskar said. Taking a cue from Laskar, Kartick Saha, general secretary of the SUCI-controlled Bengal Primary Teachers' Association, said a cut in holidays would not help improve the quality of education. 'We want the government to reintroduce the old academic session, beginning January every year to get in more working days,' he said.