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ment and government-aided schools children’s education during the pan- which the teacher-pupil ratio averages
and 636 madrasas for buying Smart demic, it’s not a long-term solution. 1:59, amount to precious little.
phones, and distribution of 2.5 mil- Students need socialisation and peer- Not a few monitors of West Bengal’s
lion bicycles to girl students of classes to-peer learning. Therefore, schools continuously under-resourced pub-
IX-XII. should reopen as soon as possible with lic education system believe that the
Moreover on February 2, Partha their managements taking all safety TMC government’s push for restarting
Chatterjee, education minister of precautions,” says Kar. schools on February 12 could backfire
West Bengal, set February 12 as the On the other hand, government if a substantial number of children in
date for reopening schools shuttered school teachers are more wary. Ac- dilapidated government schools are
for over ten months. Simultaneously, cording to a report of the Kolkata- infected by the Coronavirus.
the date of class X exams of the West based Pratichi Trust (constituted by Already facing normative anti-
Bengal Board of Secondary Schools economics Nobel laureate Dr. Amartya incumbency fatigue, two-term chief
has been set for June 1, and June 15 Sen and the Tech Mahindra Founda- minister Banerjee who won 211 of the
for school-leaving class XII students. tion), 30 percent of government pri- 294 seats in the last legislative assem-
Given that till February 1, West maries in Kolkata conduct multigrade bly election in 2016, has a fight on her
Bengal had 570,177 cases of Covid classes; 59 percent of school buildings hands. The initiatives she has taken
infection with 179 new cases report- and infrastructure is dilapidated; the to modernise and upgrade the state’s
ed on February 1, teachers, parents toilets ratio for girl children is 1:37 moribund education system ruined by
and health experts are divided on and 1:31 for boys. Obviously, condi- continuous infiltration by CPM cadres
the advisability of reopening school tions are much worse in district and and faux intellectuals for over three
campuses. However, Dr. Devi Kar, rural schools. Therefore, government decades, while welcomed by West
director of the high-ranked Modern assurances to sanitise premises, pro- Bengal’s bhadralok (cultured middle
High School for Girls, has welcomed vide hand washing facilities and en- class), may not be enough to win Ba-
the reopening announcement. “While force social distancing norms in the nerjee a third term.
online classes have helped to continue state’s 92,000 government schools in Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata)

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FEBRUARY 2021 EDUCATIONWORLD 21