Mita Mukherjee

The West Bengal government has shut down at least 90 state-aided schools across the state where student enrolment has reduced to zero.

After reopening of the senior schools for classes IX to XII on November 16, the state government had started a survey on resuming physical classes in the junior high schools which consists of classes till VIII. The survey revealed that student enrolment was nil in at least 90 such schools, a senior official of the state school education department said.

The survey also found that there are several hundred schools where less than 20 percent students’ attend the classes.

The schools, where attendance is low, will continue to operate till the students are accommodated to another institution, the official said.

Like several other states, hundreds of students coming from lower-income group families in West Bengal too had left school midway since March 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic spread in West Bengal.

According to the official, several parents had pulled their wards out of school as many of them lost their jobs or they were not able to earn money at all during the lockdown.

In many of these 90 schools, however, the trend had started much earlier. Many of these schools had recorded zero enrolments even before the pandemic, the survey showed.

The teachers belonging to the zero enrolment schools are being transferred to other state-aided schools where the numbers of teachers are less compared to the number of students.

The teachers of schools where the students’ attendance is extremely low are also being transferred, the official said.

The government has prepared a list of teachers of zero enrolment schools and also of schools where attendance is extremely low and directed the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education, which affiliate the schools to transfer them to other institutions where more teachers are required.

The process of transferring the teachers is already in progress, Kalyanmoy Ganguly, the board president said.

“We have received a list of teachers for transferring them to schools where there are less teachers. We have issued the transfer orders as per the recommendation of the government,” Ganguly told EducationWorld.

Several teachers who have received the transfer orders said their schools had been running with zero enrolments for a long time and they had been receiving the salaries from the government without doing any job.

But, according to them, they were unhappy with the government as the transfer orders have been issued without informing them and taking their opinions.

Many of them alleged they have been transferred to schools located in far-away places from their home which would affect their families as well.

“In my school, there was zero enrolments before the pandemic spread. I had no information that I would be transferred even a few days back. The government should have informed me before selecting the school where I am to be transferred,” the teacher-in-charge of a school in the northern fringe of Kolkata told EducationWorld on condition of anonymity.

All Post Graduate Teachers’ Welfare Association, an organization of state-aided school teachers have written to the state commissioner of school education requesting the government to reconsider the decision and issue a fresh order after taking the opinion of the teachers.

Also read: Maharashtra: 38% school students continued formal education in lockdown