Duare classroom: ‘Paray Shikshalaya’ for students in West Bengal

Poulami.Roy
KOLKATA: The state government on Monday launched ‘Paray Shikshalaya’, a community-based schooling endeavour in neighbourhoods targeting primary students up to Class V to revive classroom education in the open. The aim of the programme is to wean back a large section of students who has dropped out of the formal education system in the past two years due to the closure of schools following the pandemic.
Launching the ambitious project on Monday, state education minister Bratya Basu said more than 60 lakh students from over 65,000 primary schools will get to learn from more than 2 lakh teachers. The programme will get under way from February 7 and continue till schools formally reopen.

Later in the day, the school education department sent a note to all DMs, urging them to take personal initiative to monitor and support the programme so that it reaches out to all target children. The state Sarva Siksha mission project director Subhra Chakrabarti has been made the nodal officer of the programme.
While classes IX to XII have had an opportunity to sporadically return to school since the lockdown in March 2020, those in lower classes have hardly had any schooling. Only a limited number of schools in urban areas have had access to online teaching. The state government had earlier this month launched a helpline to connect students in classes VI to VIII with teachers. That initiative is called Banglar Siksha Durabhase.
The minister said the local administration will be involved in providing assistance to the project. That will mean involvement of civic bodies like Kolkata Municipal Corporation, Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation and various municipalities across the state as well as panchayats in rural areas. The civic bodies will help set up the logistics required to operate an open-air classroom where all Covid protocols will be maintained.
In November 2021, prior to the reopening of classes IX to XII, the school education department had prepared audio-visual presentations as a part of an awareness programme and circulated across all districts. The presentation included jingles and motivational speeches by Basu and eminent personalities like Nobel laureate Avijit Vinayak Banerjee to try and motivate students to continue with their studies despite the challenges.