Paray Shikshalay for 5-9-yr-old students to begin from Feb 7

KOLKATA: The state School Education department will start Paray Shikshalay (School at Locality) initiative to help students in the age group of 5-9 years— from pre-primary to class IV (upto class V in schools having such class)—in their studies and other co-curricular activities. About 6052682 students of 50151 primary schools and 15599 Sishu Siksha Kendras (SSKs) will be benefitted from this initiative.

State Education minister Bratya Basu announced on Monday that the learning programme at community level would be rolled out from February 7 to keep the students engaged in a regular learning process and provide them opportunities to interact with peers and teachers in this interim period.

The department believes that the childrens' learning process has been adversely affected by the pandemic with their schools remaining closed since March 2020. Such long absence from school classroom environment shall definitely have some negative impact on the young minds in terms of social, cognitive, and psychological behavior in the future, if not addressed to. The initiative will promote a child friendly environment in the open assemblies, focusing on enabling children to bond with reading, writing, creativity and imagination skills.

Basu said the name 'Paray Shiksalay' has been christened by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. He said the academic transaction in these sessions would be steered by the primary school teachers, primary level para teachers and sahayak/ sahyikas of Sishu Siksha Kendras (SSKs).

"The learners of government/government aided schools and SSKs will be clubbed together under this initiative. The open space classes will be held in the same timing of the classes that used to be held in the schools during pre COVID-19 times," he added.

The sessions shall be organised in the open space arranged by the Panchayats/urban local bodies and ward education committees. Basu also welcomed the private schools to be a part of this initiative.

The Education department of Kolkata Municipal Corporation will hold a meeting on January 27 to chalk out modalities of starting classes for students of its primary schools following Paray Shiksalay model.

Member Mayor in Council (Education) Sandipan Saha said there are 240 schools spread across 144 wards of KMC with the number of students being 18100 and teachers being 750.

Meanwhile, when asked about the state government's plan about school reopening, Basu said Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was closely monitoring the COVID-19 situation and would herself make an announcement about the reopening of schools.

"The safety of the students is our top priority and when we are confident that students are 100 per cent safe and secure, then Chief Minister will surely take a call on this. The guardians need not to be worried," assured Basu.