Children bunk classes to spend time on riverside: Councillor counsels truant students

Children bunk classes to spend time on riverside

Representational Picture : File Picture

Subhasish Chaudhuri   |   TT  |  Calcutta   |    05.08.22 : A Trinamul Congress councillor of Diamond Harbour municipality has taken it upon herself to track down truant students who prefer to spend time at riverside locations and send them back to the classroom.

Puja Saha, a young homemaker and a tutor by passion, represents ward 14. Accompanied by Trinamul workers, Puja has been frequenting the banks of the Hooghly in the town to spot students who bunk classes.

A first-time councillor, Puja started the endeavour after a considerable fall in attendance was reported from schools in the town.

Puja said: “I am a teacher first. So, the news of a drop in attendance at several schools worried me and I tried to find out the reason. Schools have suffered a lot during the Covid-19 pandemic and I found the tendency to skip classes worrisome, particularly after educational institutions are gradually gaining normalcy after the pandemic.”

Puja’s efforts to go to the root of the “dropout” led her to the town’s Riverside Road, where she spotted a large number of students, both boys and girls, in uniform spending time.

“I inquired about the absence of some students from a few schools and came to know that they all have been regularly leaving home but escaping to other destinations. Our party workers recently informed me about a large number of students in school uniform and casual dresses spending time in the leisure zones along Riverside Road,” Puja told The Telegraph.

“So, along with some senior party workers, I began checking the area and found hundreds of school students enjoying the summer afternoon under the shade of trees with friends. I spotted some students who even carried casual dress in their school bags to escape the attention of onlookers. I interacted with them and made them understand the mistake of missing school. I took the phone number of their parents and asked them to take care of their children,” Puja said.

A few videos of Puja’s “surveillance” circulated on social media platforms and created a pool of supporters and critics.

Several people have questioned her right to “moral policing” and said her endeavour amounts to “intervening in privacy space”.

Puja, however, appeared unperturbed and vowed to continue her drive. “As most of the students are minors, I don’t feel I have infringed upon anyone’s personal choice.”

Local sources said there were at least four schools in and around ward 14 that Puja represents. Sources said all the schools recorded a fall in attendance in the past few months.

A teacher of a local school said: “There has been a fresh fall in attendance when classes resumed after summer vacation. We learnt that students were not coming to school and spending time elsewhere in the town. But we have no machinery to bring them back to school. In such a situation, the initiative taken by the councillor is definitely praiseworthy.”