Following Mayor's directions, KMC to come up with English medium school at ward 82
Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will come up with a new English medium school at ward 82 in Chetla, in which Mayor Firhad Hakim is the councillor. Hakim has held a meeting with the Education department of KMC recently and has given directions for boosting the infrastructure of municipal schools and stressed upon introducing more English medium ones.
"We are planning to come up with a new English medium school at ward 82. The total number of English medium schools by KMC will go up to 18. We will also elevate two primary schools to upper primary," a senior official of KMC's Education department said.
Lenin Memorial School and Mukh Ram Kanoria School have been selected for the upgradation. The two schools presently have students up to the fifth standard. They will now house students up to the eighth standard.
The civic body is also setting up water purifiers to ensure potable drinking water for the students studying in the municipal schools. "The system will be put in place before the onset of summer season," the official said.
It may be mentioned that while a number of municipal schools have a handful of students, the English medium schools are having a reasonably good number of pupils.
"To begin with, we will start English medium in around 20 schools. Based on the feedback we will be introducing it in more schools. However, Bengali medium will continue to run side-by-side. It will be the discretion of the students when it comes to opting for English or Bengali medium," said Avijit Mukherjee, Member, Mayor-in-Council (MMiC), Education.
A senior official of KMC's Education department said English will be the first language for those opting for English medium, with Bengali as the second language. Subjects like History, Geography and Science will be taught in English.
At present there are 273 municipal schools in the city, among which 157 are Bengali medium and 17 are English medium. Besides these, there are a number of schools with Oriya, Hindi and Urdu mediums.
