Bengal to resume offline lessons for primary classes from March

The West Bengal government has initiated consultations with school authorities to resume in-person classes for primary sections from March, after a survey found that suspension of physical classes led to huge dip in junior-level learning skills.

Students of classes 8 to 12 started attending schools from February 3, after a brief shutdown necessitated by the third wave of COVID-19.

With the COVID-19 cases further reducing in the state, the education department, as per the instruction of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, started taking feedback from the schools to chalk out modalities of bringing primary students back to physical classrooms.

The education department has been asked to explore the possibilities of resuming classes with 50 per cent attendance on rotation basis. This means half of the students of a class will come to school on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, while the other half will take the physical class on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Recently the Chief Minister also hinted at the reopening of primary schools, saying that it will depend on the COVID situation.

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The COVID-19 positivity rate continues to slide in the state. On Sunday, it further dropped to 1.42 per cent from 1.65 per cent on Saturday.

The state government is under pressure from various quarters to resume in-person classes for primary level, as the latest Annual Status of Education Report revealed that the closure of schools due to pandemic severely affected learning abilities.

Between 2018 and 2021, the level of reading skills dropped by seven per cent, while arithmetic skills dipped by 10 per cent in government schools of the state, the report revealed. It said that about 70 per cent of the surveyed students of Class III could not read texts of Class II or do Class II-level subtractions.

Similarly, the survey also found only 25.9 per cent students of Class V have proper numeracy skills and only 27.7 have reading skills. In 2018, the skill levels were 29.2 per cent and 48 per cent respectively.

The students of classes I and II are relatively better off, according to the study. It found 66.3 per cent students of classes I have proper learning skills, while 68.5 per cent have numerical skills.

Similarly, less than 50 per cent students of class II struggled with reading skills and less than 20 per cent with numerical skills. But even in these classes, the level of learning outcome dropped from 2018.

The study surveyed 10,141 households in 510 villages across all districts of the state except Darjeeling.

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The finding has prompted Nobel-winning economist Abhijit Banerjee to suggest the state government to reopen schools at all levels to prevent the slide in the quality of basic education, particularly in government schools.

The West Bengal Academy of Paediatrics (WBAP) too advocated the need to reopen schools, pointing out that less than three per cent of children were getting severe disease.