Teachers dismayed by early vacations

Statesman News Service

MALDA, May 7: Though the Malda district inspector of schools (secondary) has circulated the government order to declare summer vacation from 9 May in secondary and higher secondary schools, many school authorities are not willing to carry out the order. Teachers belonging to the CPI-M backed teachers’ association (All Bengal Teachers' Association) have expressed unhappiness over the order since it will cause technical difficulties for their schools. Following the government's order, the Malda district primary school council has issued an order to declare summer vacation in all of its schools from 10 May to first week of June. Even, the Madrassa board has issued order of summer vacation from 9 May to 25 May. The Malda DI (secondary) received the order from the Madrassa board today and he was trying to convey the order as soon as possible to all 69 Madrassas in this district. The government order for summer vacation has raised controversy here over issuing early summer vacation just prior to rural polls. Though the government has said due to prevailing heat wave it decided to declare summer vacation earlier, many teachers said that due to upcoming rural polls the government has decided to declare summer vacation to fulfil other objectives. A group of teachers argued this early summer vacation was not for the students, it is for the teachers in primary, secondary and Madrassa education institutes who are involved in politics and can play an active role in favour of the ruling parties in this state. “I strongly object to the decision of early summer vacation. If the government declares vacation for a few days for rural polls it would be acceptable because many school teachers would be engaged by the government for polling duty and they would not able to attend school for students,” said Mr Subhro Maitra, a teacher of higher secondary school. He also said: “The early summer vacation will create problem for the students for many reasons. In fact we could not begin session from 2 May in all schools. The admission process for Class V is going on. Book distribution for the students, who are entitled to get government's books from panchayat and blocks, is yet to start. Book list for new classes have not been prepared for all students. There are more jobs for Class XII students after publication of results of Class XI”. The teacher in charge of Malda academy, Mr Pradip Dutta, also an active member of ABTA, said: “We will not declare summer vacation on 9 May. The decision is not practical. There are lots of work for the students in school before vacation.” “In Malda the heat wave will be more in June than the present early vacation time when the students need vacation,” many teachers said. The Malda DI (secondary) Mr Chinmay Sarkar said: “Many teachers are asking me about the order facing some technical problems to declare vacation. I told them to carry out the government order. If I get any complaints regarding violations of the government order, I would report it to the board.”