Sitting on a chair under a makeshift shed at Chetla Agrani Club, 10-year-old Sonali Bhuiyan is thrilled to be back. She is attending in-person classes after a gap of almost two years. “I had been attending online classes, but the face-to-face interaction with my friends and teachers feels really good. I am happy to come back to school,” said the Class 5 student of Chetla Girl’s High School in south Kolkata.
Six schools in Chetla area on Monday held open-air lessons for students of classes 1 to 7 at the Chetla Agrani Club ground as part of the ‘Paray Shikshalaya’ (neighbourhood classes) initiative, launched by the state government the same day.
Altogether 31 lakh students turned up at 75,000 venues across West Bengal on the first day, according to PTI.
Various studies have shown that the Covid pandemic has hit the education sector the hardest, bringing down learning levels of students and pushing up the drop-out rate. Junior schools in the state had remained shut for 22 months due to Covid restrictions.
The aim of ‘Paray Sikshalaya’ is to encourage students who dropped out of schools during the covid-19 pandemic to continue their education.
The initiative was initially meant for Class 1 to 5 students (1 to 5). It was extended to Classes 6 and 7 after the state government had reopened schools for Class 8 to 12 students.
“Today, we called students of Classes 5, 6 and 7 for the open-air class in batches. We brought blackboards, chalk, duster and some books from the school. Chairs, a shed, drinking water bottles and food packets have been provided by the host club. They also allowed us to use their toilets. Students will get mid-day meal after the class,” said Mamoni Das, a Mathematics teacher at Chetla Girl’s High School. Six teachers from the school took the classes stretched over four periods. The primary section of the school also conducted such classes in another area of the ground.
Schools with no open-air spaces conducted classes in neighborhood parks and grounds. Local councilors and MLAs helped set up facilities such as makeshift sheds and chairs, besides making mid-day meal arrangements, in parks.
Benches were set up and blackboards placed for students to provide a real classroom experience. Teacher Sananda Mondal of Kailash Vidya Mandir said, “Although this is the first day, but we saw students attending classes with enthusiasm. Both primary and secondary students attended classes. About 30 to 40 students per school came and were asked to follow Covid-19 safety measures and wear masks all the time.”
However, a section of teachers feel that they had better hold classes in their schools. “Good initiative… But we feel that all these students must go back to their respective schools,” said Sutapa Shil Sinha of Chetla Boy’s High School.
29 Covid deaths in 24 hrs, positivity at 2.6%
West Bengal Monday recorded 641 new Covid-19 cases, taking its tally of active cases to 16,864. The virus also claimed 29 lives in the state.
Currently, the state’s positivity rate stands at 2.59 per cent. In the past 24 hours, 24,786 samples were tested in Bengal. Till now, the state has tested 2,35,10,875 samples.
As per the state health department, Bengal’s total caseload reached 20,06,513 on Monday. With just 1.95 per cent beds occupied, 1,122 Covid-19 patients are undergoing treatment in hospitals while 15,576 are recovering in home isolation, it said.
Among districts of the state, North 24 Parganas and Kolkata logged 105 and 75 new infections respectively. The state capital also witnessed 10 deaths, which took its toll to 20,852. North 24 Parganas recorded seven deaths.
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