West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced on Saturday at a press conference that schools and colleges in the state would be closed till June 10 on account of an extended lockdown for Covid-19 till April 30.
The West Bengal government is set to impose a total lockdown in the state, including the 9-10 sensitive hotspots which have been found to show a number of Coronavirus cases in the last three weeks. The state government on Friday had said that it had identified 9-10 hotspots in the state, including one each in Kolkata and Howrah.
CM Mamata Banerjee said on Saturday that the state is going to stand with the centre and implement the lockdown extension till April 30 together to fight for the health of the nation. PM Narendra Modi is set to address the nation on Saturday night regarding the lockdown decision.
The schools and colleges in West Bengal were earlier supposed to be closed till March 31 but that got extended when the 21-day lockdown came in place. Now, the educational institutions are set to remain closed until a longer time with the extended lockdown.
“West Bengal schools usually start their summer vacations from June 10 to June 15, generally,” said the CM and added that because of extreme heat, summer vacations had also been started early in previous years.
She encouraged West Bengal government school teachers to continue with online classes and the ones hosted on TV. She appreciated that similar work was being done by CISCE and CBSE boards as well.
“All colleges and universities need to continue the work from home process,” Mamata Banerjee said.
The chief minister also said that since schools would be closed till June 10, steps need to be taken to ensure that young students in government schools continue to receive the mid day meal provisions like rice and potatoes were provided to all government school students in April.
