West Bengal's kids are going back to school, and the state's Education Department has floated a novel proposal to keep them safe and make this return to physical classes last a little longer than previous attempts. Primary and pre-primary classes will not be conducted under the sky, in an open-air module in an endeavour to tackle the risk presented by COVID-19.
Coined as the Paray Sikshalay initiative, the proposal has received clearance from the state's Secretariat and will see students of Classes I to V attending school on open grounds. They have also announced that it will hire primary school teachers, and para-teachers in order to facilitate this programme. Apart from education, the students will also be encouraged to fine-tune their skills in various extracurricular activities such as elocution and painting, among others.
Schools had reopened in November 2021 in a phased manner last year after being out for almost two years thanks to the pandemic. They were shut again on January 3, with the third wave of COVID-19 bringing a surge in cases in the state. However, parents and students have been demanding the reopening of schools, and the education department is in talks with the state's secretariat, Nabanna, to chalk out the details of resuming physical classes now.