West Bengal education department seeks Nabanna opinion on school restart

KOLKATA: State education department has again started planning for reopening educational institutions. State school education department held an initial discussion with the officials of Nabanna on Friday regarding the possibilities of reopening.
The state government took the decision to close all educational institutions from January 3 due to the surge of Covid-19.After January 15, the gave some relaxations to some specific sectors like gathering in marriage ceremonies, gyms and other areas except for schools and colleges.
Recently, different teachers' organizations and students' bodies have raised their voice to reopen schools and colleges as early as possible. Sources said officials of school education department have sent a note to Nabanna to know the opinion from them.
Maharashtra and a few other states have decided to reopen schools even from the primary sections. Health experts have given their opinion to reopen educational institutions. After getting several opinions from various sectors, the state school education department has again started planning for reopening. The state has extended restrictions till January 31, so within a week, the education department wants to get ready.
Authorities are feeling that board students like Madhyamik, higher secondary and CISCE and CBSE need to get at least one month of physical classes before their final exams startfrom March onwards. "We had reopened schools on November 16 and did all our pre-board and semester one examinations in offline mode and almost everybody took exams. I think it's very important for the students to get used to the system and return to school," said The Heritage School principal Seema Sapru.
"We must keep an eye on the infections that is there in the community. Also, many students have got the first dose and soon they will be getting the second dose. So the government may consider these two elements and take a decision because students have been missing a lot of education and assessment," said an official of South Point School.
The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations has already deferred the ISC practical, project marks submission deadline to February 28 from January 31. "We are struggling a lot to conduct viva exams in virtual mode and waiting for the government directives for rescheduling practical exams," said a principal.
Heads of the schools affiliated to state board feel there's need to reopen schools as students are suffering due to the huge learning gap.