A primary school in South Dinajpur closed down on Tuesday as all three teachers were assigned duties as booth-level officers (BLOs) for the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral roll, and none of them could take classes.

Along with regular classes, the mid-day meal service has also come to a halt.

For the SIR, many school teachers, mostly those attached to state-aided primary schools, have been appointed as BLOs. At Bagduar Santal Primary School in Ganguria panchayat of the Bansihari block, assistant teachers Margarita Mardi and Manik Ray Chowdhury were appointed as BLOs from November 4.

Since then, Samay Murmu, the headmaster, has been singlehandedly running the school. However, on Sunday, he, too, was assigned the BLO’s duty.

“As a result, classes were last held on Monday. Since Tuesday, the school has been closed as no teacher has been coming,” said Pascal Kisku, a guardian.

The school has 50 students in total. “The final exams will be held in December, and at this time, their studies are being affected. Also, children have not been getting the mid-day meal since Tuesday. We don’t think there is any need to engage all teachers for the SIR,” Kisku said.

Assistant teacher Mardi said the teachers were working day and night, and the task of digitisation had also been entrusted to them.

“We understand the situation, but we hardly have time to attend the school,” she said.

Murmu, the headmaster, said: “Two other teachers of the school had already been assigned the BLO’s duty. From Monday, I was also appointed as a BLO. Since Tuesday, I have been unable to go to school.”

Abhishek Shukla, the subdivisional officer of Gangarampur, said he would look into the issue.

Santosh Hansda, the chairman of the district primary school council (DPSC), said: “We came to know about the issue today (on Friday). If we had been informed earlier about the teachers being engaged as BLOs, we could have put in place an alternative arrangement.”