The state higher secondary council has asked schools to start online classes for those enrolled in Class XI since schools have a prolonged summer vacation.
However, several school heads said they are struggling to conduct online classes for the want of textbooks.
The council is printing books afresh as the plus-II course has been split into four semesters this year.
Several school heads said that the books of many subjects are yet to be printed, leaving them clueless about what should be taught during the online classes.
The council in early May asked schools to start online classes as the schools are having an extended summer vacation from April 22 to June 2, because of the heat and the ongoing Lok Sabha polls.
“The first-semester examination will be held in September. Suppose the books are
not made available to the students soon, we don’t know how they could be prepared to write the examinations,” said Ashim Nanda, the headmaster of Shree Aurobindo Vidyamandir in Dum Dum.
“The council must do everything to make the books available immediately”.
The council distributes Bengali, English and Hindi language books from the schools free of cost. The students are required to buy books on other subjects.
Council now offers sixty subjects at the plus-II level.
Then what are the schools doing in the online classes?
“We are familiarising students with the syllabus content for which the council has published a book. But the students are not taking much interest. Other than a handful of science subjects, no other books are available. Books are required at the earliest to grow interest among students,” said Chandan Maity, headmaster of Krishnachandrapur High School in Mathurapur, South 24-Parganas.
“Schools will open for physical classes on June 3. Books must be available before that”.
The council said in a notice on May 6 while announcing the annual working plan
for the 2024-25 session that classes for XI, under the segmented plus-II courses, will begin from May and classes of semester-I be started “if necessary on online mode”.
The council has split the plus-II courses into four semesters — semesters I and II for Class XI and semesters III and IV for Class XII.
“Since the schools will be on vacation till June 2, we have told them to start online classes. Else they won’t be able to complete the syllabus for the first semester and students would find it difficult to write the tests,” Priyadarshini Mallick, secretary of the council had said earlier.
The council’s academic calendar says semester-I exams will be held from September 13 to 30.
Saugata Basu, the secretary of the Government School Teachers’ Association, said if the books are not immediately available, the syllabus for the first semester won’t be completed and students would find it difficult to write the tests.
“The council should have planned accordingly with the publishers while announcing the segmentation of the plus-II course in March,” said Basu.
Chiranjeeb Bhattacharya, the president of the council said: “The books of language are yet to be published.
Saraswati Press will soon publish the books. As for other subjects are concerned, books are now available in the market. If there is any shortfall, that will be over by May 31”.
