KOLKATA: The headmaster of a higher secondary school in West Bengal was served a show-cause notice for resuming classes on Wednesday despite clear rules that all educational institutions shall remain closed in the wake of Covid pandemic.
As the news of the violation of the instruction reached the school education department, the district school inspector reached BC Roy Higher Secondary School at Ghatal in West Midnapore, recorded statements of students, their guardians and teachers.
“The headmaster was show caused on the basis of the preliminary findings of the school inspector,’’ said an official. Brindaban Ghatak, the headmaster, had decided to resume classes for the students of Class-X. “The decision was taken because online classes were not effective because of negligible access to smartphones and poor network connectivity. A section of guardians, too, requested me to resume studies,’’ claimed Ghatak.
All the Class-X students were informed on Tuesday to attend the science and English classes.
“Out of 150 students, 52 turned up to attend classes and 25 among 37 teachers were present in the school. Classes continued for three hours maintaining social distancing norm,’’ said a teacher.
Chapeshwar Sardar, the district school inspector, said the headmaster’s decision was a gross violation of the state government’s instruction.
“The headmaster was asked to present his case.’’ Asked about the show-cause notice, Ghatak admitted that his decision of resuming classes was wrong. “It was a wrong decision. I am ready to face all action that the school education department will take.’
The development happened on a day when the state's coronavirus caseload rose to 1,07,323 with the highest single-day spike of 2,997 infections on Thursday, the health department said.
The COVID-19 fatalities also mounted to 2,259 after the death of 56 people, the department said in a bulletin.
It said that 2,497 patients were discharged from hospitals after they recovered from COVID-19, taking the total number of cured people to 78,617.
The states discharge rate is now 73,25 per cent.
The number of active patients rose to 26,447.
Of the fresh fatalities, 47 died due to comorbidities where COVID-19 was incidental, the bulletin stated.
Kolkata accounted for 16 deaths, while 12 fatalities each were reported from North 24 Parganas and Howrah, three each from Hooghly and Purba Medinipur, two each from Nadia and South 24 Parganas, and one each from Paschim Bardhaman, Malda, Uttar Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling and Alipurduar.
The metropolis also registered 666 new cases of infection, followed by 582 in North 24 Parganas, 229 in Howrah, 215 in South 24 Parganas, 208 in Malda, 166 in Murshidabad, 111 in Purba Medinipur, 105 in Darjeeling, and 99 in Nadia district, the bulletin said.
The remaining 496 cases were reported from 13 other districts of the state.
Since Wednesday, 30,032 samples were tested while 12,16,955 such tests were conducted in West Bengal so far.
(With PTI Inputs)