Parents ‘irked’ after schools stay open during Visarjan; not a pubilc holiday, say authorities

One of the parents, who is a doctor, said on condition of anonymity, “My son studies in Class 6. His school was open. And with the auto not turning up to pick my child, I had to drop him to the school in the morning and bring him back in the afternoon. I was stuck in the traffic for a couple of hours and had to keep my clinic closed as a result of which many patients were left without treatment. The school authorities should have declared a holiday. I am not the only parent who suffered…”Officials, however, stated that since Ganesh Visarjan is not in the list of public holidays declared by the state government, it was up to the schools to decide if they wanted to keep their campuses open or not.

Surat District Education officer Bhagirathsinh Parmar said, “The state government has declared 21 days of public holidays for 2024 and Ganesh Visarjan day is not included in the list. The school has discretionary powers to declare holidays. We have come to know that there are some schools in the city which were running on Tuesday, but it is up to them. We cannot force them (to close the schools).”

The parents said that with a number of schools declaring holiday on Visarjan day, they were confused about whether they had to send their wards to school or not.

Sources in a few schools claimed that fewer than the regular number of students were present even as the teachers held classes as usual.

Self-financed Schools Association, Surat, member Deepak Rajyaguru said, “The state government has given the liberty to the schools to keep two to three holidays per year depending on their requirement. There were schools which had declared a holiday on Tuesday but there were some that remained open. It is up to the school authorities to decide. On Ganesh Visarjan day, school buses, auto and vans could not travel on the roads closed by the police department. Majority of the self-financed schools remained closed.”