Primary schools may reopen after evaluation of Covid situation: CM

MP  | 11 Feb 2022 |  Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday proposed reopening of primary schools with 50 per cent students on alternate days, if any other Covid variant doesn't hit Bengal. 

"We will wait for some more days and if we find that the COVID-19 poses no further problem and any new variant does not hit the state, we can think of resuming the primary classes (I to IV). The classes for primary students can be started with 50 per cent attendance. We have to talk to the schools about holding the classes on alternate days," Banerjee said at a programme to hand over land deeds to 2000 refugee families at Netaji Indoor Stadium. 

She elaborated that for instance, students who come to school on Monday would skip on Tuesday while those who come on Tuesday will skip on Wednesday. 

Banerjee added that the Paray Shikshalay (Classroom at Locality)—an open-air classroom programme—that has kicked off for students of pre primary to class VII from February 7 will continue as of now. 

Schools for class VIII to XII, colleges and universities have resumed physical classes from February 3. 

Significantly, Banerjee's assertions about reopening primary schools came a day after nobel laureate Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee had suggested that schools for all classes should be reopened immediately while launching the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER, West Bengal). 

Vinayak Banerjee is also the head of the Global Advisory Committee constituted by the Chief Minister to help the state in fighting COVID-19 pandemic. 

The survey by ASER that was conducted among 11,189 children across 17 districts of the state in December 2021 has pointed out that the percentage of children in Class II who can at least read words has declined to 53 per cent in 2021 from 66.2 per cent in 2018, and 54.8 per cent in 2014. 

The Nobel laureate said: "It is unfortunate that the students of Class V cannot do the sums of Class II level. So, it is obvious that a section of the students cannot catch up with the present form of education. 

They are lagging behind. This cannot be a good sign for the education system of the state as well as of the country." 

http://www.millenniumpost.in/kolkata/primary-schools-may-reopen-after-evaluation-of-covid-situation-cm-467900