DISTANCE: Open air classes promoted by the West Bengal government facilitate physical classes even while following Covid-19 protocols.
The West Bengal government has come up with the innovative idea of having open air classes so that physical schooling can be revived, even while observing all Covid-19 protocols.
In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic disrupting education for school-going children, West Bengal government is set to launch an open-air classroom programme Paray Shikshalaya (Neighbourhood Schools) for primary and pre-primary students on February 7.
South 24 Parganas District Magistrate (DM) P Ulaganathan told ANI, “Children, in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic restrictions, are deprived of proper school education. Under project ‘Paray Shikshalaya’, we have now decided to hold classes in open ground. The para teachers and primary school teachers would be part of the project to provide elementary education to Class 1-5. Project has been approved by the state government.”
According to the DM, apart from elementary education, students would be encouraged to participate in various extra-curricular activities like painting.
The state government has decided to provide mid-day meals to the students of ‘Paray Shikshalaya’. “The make this project successful, the South 24 Parganas District’s Information and Culture department is working vigorously”, said the DM.
West Bengal had earlier resumed offline classes for classes 8-12 on Thursday, after being suspended for a month due to a surge in Covid-19 cases.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, the state reported 1,916 new Covid-19 cases, 807 less than the previous day’s figure, pushing the tally to 20,02,169, a bulletin of the health department said. It said 36 more people succumbed to the disease during the day taking the death toll to 20,723.
A total of 2,614 recoveries were reported, which improved the discharge rate marginally to 97.91%. So far, 19,60,300 people have been cured of the disease in the state. There were 21,146 active cases in West Bengal, and of the fresh fatalities, six were recorded in North 24 Parganas district and five in Kolkata, it added.
Kolkata registered the highest new cases at 277, followed by 238 in North 24 Parganas and 143 in Nadia district.
Courtesy: Livemint