The coronavirus pandemic has affected students in more ways than one: from the postponement of exams to the continuous shift from offline to online classes, COVID-19 has changed the way schools operate. However, the government of West Bengal has decided that students should no longer be deprived of classes.
The Education Department of West Bengal has decided to launch a new initiative called ‘Paray Sikshalay’ (neighborhood school). Under this initiative, primary and preschoolers from state schools are taught in open spaces. An official said on Sunday that this new initiative will help bring students back to an offline learning environment and that the open air will keep them from fitting into a classroom and catching infections.
“Children have not been tutored for a long time due to the limitations caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. We have now decided to hold classes in open ground,” the official told PTI news agency.
Not only this, students will also be motivated to participate in extracurricular activities such as reading and painting, which will also take place in the open air.
This comes at a time when some state governments are still figuring out whether to keep schools closed or reopen offline classes. A recent survey in Maharashtra found that nearly 62 percent of parents surveyed are unwilling to send their children to school from January 24, since the state government’s decision to allow schools to reopen from Monday.
