Confused if it was a holiday on Wednesday,which was the day of martyrdom of Guru Tegh Bahadur,many students and teachers were a harried lot today. The headmaster of a government school said: There was no intimation until yesterday about todays state holiday. We did not get any mail or circular from Education department. So we told the students to come to school. We got to know about the holiday only today morning; but by then,all students had reached school. We had to ask them to return home. The headmistress of a government-aided school said: The state calendar listed November 24 as a holiday; but I was told by the management to cancel the holiday as the martyrdom of the Guru will be observed on December 10. I was utterly confused. I had to make more than 20 calls to convey this message of the management to the teachers; and the teachers in turn were instructed to convey this message to the students. Harnam Das,District Education Officer (Secondary),Ludhiana,said,Although we did not get any message about todays holiday,we had standing instructions to observe it as a holiday.
