A school in Dum Dum has set up a corpus to help students from underprivileged families buy reference books, which they now cannot afford because of the worsening of their families’ financial condition during the pandemic.
A school in North 24-Parganas has promised to extend all possible help to parents so they could keep sending their children to school.
Dum Dum Shree Arabinda Vidya Mandir, which set up a corpus of Rs 1 lakh, has conducted a survey to identify the families that need help.
Asim Nanda, headmaster of the institution, said parents were not sending their children to school because they were unsure whether they could fund their studies at a time their income had dropped drastically because of the pandemic.
A teacher said some families have been hit so hard by the curbs on economic activities announced to check infections that they find it difficult to spare money for the bus or auto fare for sending their children to school. “The corpus was set up with contributions from teachers. We will start helping the deserving parents this week,” Nanda said.
Another teacher of the school said a number of parents had lost their jobs during the pandemic. Besides, parents who are hawkers by profession suffered huge losses during the periods markets were shut as a precaution against Covid.
Teachers are visiting homes of absentee students to find out why they are staying away from school.
Metro reported on Saturday that some schools were recording thin attendance in classes IX to XII because many students of this age group from poor families had taken up menial jobs to support their families amid the pandemic.
Krishnangshu Mishra, headmaster of Dakshin Chatra High School in Baduria in North 24-Parganas, said a number of students had taken to driving totos to help support their families.
“We have told the parents that we would help them buy reference books and uniforms for the children. The school is offering incentives to parents to send their children back to the class,” he said.
Another reason why parents of students of classes IX to XII are not keen to send their children to school is that senior students are not covered by the midday meal scheme.
Supriya Panja, headmaster of The Park Institution, in north Kolkata, said: “We set up a corpus of Rs 1 lakh over the past 10 years and will offer support to deserving students as much as possible.”
A large number of students in the school are from slums.