All schools in Bengal, government as well as private, will remain closed till July 31.

The school closure has been extended in “public interest,” a circular issued on Tuesday said.

The pending papers of the 2020 higher secondary examinations, scheduled for July 2, 6 and 8, will be held as usual, it added.

According to the announcement, no higher secondary examination centre will be set up in containment zones.

The West Bengal Council for Higher Secondary Education will come out with “a detailed advisory meeting norms of Covid-19 protocol and guidelines issued from time to time”, the government said.

The circular, signed by the school education department’s secretary, also says students’ hostels will remain closed till July 31. Government officials could not explain that if hostels remained closed, how HS examinees in residential institutions would write the pending papers.

“The clarifications are expected in the detailed guidelines,” said one official.

The circular said though the schools were to be kept closed, the heads of the institutions could attend office. The administrative offices in the schools and emergency services like electricity, cleanliness, water supply, security, mid-day meal distribution may remain functional “under strict Covid-19 protocol and extant guidelines”.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had earlier hinted that schools were “unlikely” to open even in July. “Studies of boys and girls are suffering, no doubt…. We have to work for the interest of the students,” she had said.