Jamshedpur, Aug. 23: Schools and colleges would be closed from August 27 and 30, either because of the bypoll or because of Rakhi.

A letter in this regard was sent from the East Singhbum deputy commissioner’s office to city schools this morning. The deputy commissioner, Nitin Madan Kulkarni, said: “Only those schools where polling would be held will have four days of holidays, others can only close on August 29, which is a public holiday.”

There are 1,263 polling booths in the constituency. Though schools received the letter today most had decided on giving holidays, though there were some confusions.

“Yes, there were confusions on the proposed holidays. But now it would be binding on all these schools to keep it closed during the four days,” said Lalitha Sareen, principal of Jamshedpur Public School, which would house a poll booth.

Till this morning there were talks that only Loyola School and Convent School would be closed from August 27. But now the holidays remain the same for all schools.

Colleges in the city would remain closed only on August 29. “Ranchi University had declared three days of holidays from August 27 in the wake of Rakhi Purnima, so we will be closed anyway,” said Shukla Mohanty, principal of Jamshedpur Women’s College.

Though the college is not a polling booth, Jamshedpur Co-operative College, Jamshedpur Workers’ College, Graduate School College for Women, Abdul Bari Memorial college and SP College in Parsudih would have poll booths.

Though the official holiday direction has come only today, students in East Singhbhum’s government primary and middle schools have been on a virtual holiday for 10 days.

The 3,500-odd male teachers of government schools in East Singhbhum have been busy with election duty and education has taken a hit in these schools.

With most teachers staying away from classrooms, students have stopped going to schools.“Hardly has a teacher come to my class since August 12,” said Deepak Kumar Singh, a Class VI student of Kitadih Middle School. “Our notebooks are lying blank and so is the blackboard.”

Anup Kumar Srivastava, a Class V student of a Jharkhand Education Project-run school in Jugsalai, has stopped going to his school for a week now. No teacher is turning up for 10 days so what is the reason to go to school, he asked.

“Why is the condition of our school so inferior despite being a government school? Earlier we were concerned about the absence of textbooks. Now teachers have been put to work somewhere else,” said Vivek Chowdhuary, a Class VII student of Government Middle School, Kitadih.

Only silver lining is that only 82 lady teachers have been put on election duty.

Some solace exists for students studying in schools being managed by women teacher. About 400 primary schools and 160 middle schools across East Singhbhum are run by lady teachers. Though the number is less, students here are being taught.