1st day of Paray Shikshalay: About 31L students turn up at 75K centres

kolkata: On the first day of its commencement, the Paray Shikshalay (Educationat Locality) programme—rolled out for students of class I to VII—received an overwhelming response with 31 lakh students turning up at 75,000 centres across the state.

Kolkata alone had 531 centres with over 20,000 students attending the open-air classes, maintaining COVID-19 protocol.The attendance of the students was quite satisfactory, considering the fact that the state government had announced a half day schedule on Monday as a mark of respect to Lata Mangeshkar, who passed away on Sunday. Mayor Firhad Hakim visited the centre at his own ward 82 in Chetla, where Paray Shikshlay was held on the Chetla Agrani Durga Puja ground.

Students from eight schools in the ward took part in the open-air classes at the venue. There were chairsfor both teachers and students at the venue. Tables and blackboards were also arranged."The Paray Shikshalay initiative will continue till schools open up for all the classes. The COVID-19 situation is improving and we are hopeful that the schools for all classes will be opened up at a suitable time.We have a COVID-19 advisory committee, which monitors the COVID-19 situationclosely. The students are very happy to attend school and interact with their friends and teachers after a gap of two years," Hakim said. Hakim said the KMC had plans to open up more centres in the days to come so that students get the scope to attend such open-air classes inclose proximity to their residences.

About 200 odd students from six schoolsunder ward 101 in Baishnabghata Patuli area attended classes at Patuli Township field. Some special children also took part in the initiative with a state government-run school for special children being located in the ward. Councillor Bappaditya Dasgupta handed over masks and cakes to the students.

"We have tagged all the 263 schools under KMC in the Paray Shikshalay initiative of the state government, which is the brainchild of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The participation of students from KMC schools has been satisfactory," Sandipan Saha, Member Mayor-in-Council (Education), KMC said.

Mid day meal was served at every centre as per instructions of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. All the teachers and students wore masks and followed physical distancing norms. School dress was not compulsory for the students.