– Mita Mukherjee

The West Bengal government has still not decided on reopening schools in the state, education minister Partha  Chatterjee said on Monday.

The government was monitoring the Covid-19 situation and it will make the announcement on when to resume  on campus classes at the “right” time, he said.

The government is taking time as it wants to ensure that the number of Covid-19 cases do not rise after reopening the schools as it happened in some other states, the minister said.           

But, he said  sanitization of schools were going on in full swing and the institutions have been asked to keep their campuses ready so that in-person teaching can be resumed immediately after the government makes the announcement on reopening the schools.

“We understand the anxiety of students. It is necessary to reopen the institutions. But at the same time we have to ensure our students’ safety. It is important to examine every aspect of students’ safety before they return to the campuses. We will have to ensure that students do not get infected by Coronavirus when they start coming to the campuses,” Partha Chatterjee told EducationWorld today.

A senior official of the state school education department said the safety protocols were being drawn up and discussions were on to consider partial reopening of the schools for students of the Class X and XII board examinations.

According to the official there is a demand for reopening the schools in January.

 Discussions are now on to allow the schools to start conducting classes for Class X and XII students following all the Covid-19 protocols, he said.  

A section of students, parents and heads of schools have been demanding that the campuses be reopened at least for  the Class X and XII students for practical classes and clearing doubts before the board examinations.

The West Bengal Council for Higher Secondary Education that conducts the state Higher Secondary (Class XII) examinations has already announced that the Higher Secondary practical examinations will have to be conducted by the schools between March 10 and 31. The schools will have to send the students’ marks to the council within April 20.

Students who will be appearing in the 2021 board examinations could not attend even a single class since March 2020 because all educational institutions to prevent spread of Covid-19.

Also read: School reopening status across states