Despite the closure of educational institutions due to the Covid-19 pandemic, West Bengal’s Education Minister Bratya Basu will open open-air “Paray Shikshalay” or neighbourhood schools for pre-school and primary school pupils on Monday. Schools first closed in March 2020 due to the pandemic, before reopening for classes 9 to 12 in February 2021. They were later closed due to West Bengal assembly elections and the second wave of Covid-19 after summer 2021. Schools for students in grades 9 to 12 resumed in November 2021 due to the recent spike in Covid-19 cases and closed again on January 3. “While the government can reopen schools for students in classes 9-12 for a period of time, students in grade 8 will never be in school after March 2020. Classes are online. Students remain completely isolated from schooling. This has serious implications to them. Community schools can solve this problem to some extent,” an official said.

Supriyo Bhattacharya, secretary of state for the United Guardians Forum, said neighbourhood schools were no substitute for traditional schools. He said they were designed for students in public schools and asked students in private schools what to do.

Last week, the Kolkata High Court filed a public interest lawsuit to reopen schools and colleges. The government is considering reopening high schools, colleges and universities as Covid-19 cases decline. The state has seen more than 24,000 daily Covid-19 cases this month. On Sunday, a total of 6,980 cases were detected, bringing the number of active cases to 13,474. At least 36 people died from the disease on Sunday.

Complete News Source : Hindustan Times