A section of students are staying away from primary classes in government schools even after in-person classes resumed because most of them have started working.
These children are engaged in small factories that make products like gloves or bread so that they can make up for the loss of income in the family because of the pandemic, heads of several institutions said.
Several schools are recording a fall in attendance from pre-primary to Class VII, a section that reopened on February 16. The attraction of a mid-day meal is not enough to wean them away as elders in the family think, the earning cannot be sacrificed, said a headmaster.
The heads of these institutions are even sending teachers to the homes so that the pupils could be persuaded to come to school.
Sujay Shikdar, headmaster of Shastriji Harijan Vidyamandir, on Palmer Bazar Road, said many of the pupils in his school have been engaged in small factories that dot Canal South Road.
When the teachers went to meet the parents, they were told that kids set out for the factories early in the morning and spend the entire day. They earn Rs 500 a week.
The school runs in the morning shift. “The parents engaged them when the schools were shut. As rejoining schools would lead to termination from work, they are staying away from classes,” said Shikdar.
A teacher of another school said when the campuses were shut parents would come to collect the stock of rice and pulses that would be disbursed in place of cooked food. “We failed to comprehend that these kids would drop out.”
The headmaster said he had even proposed to the parents of these kids that they be allowed to leave school early so they could manage their studies and jobs at the same time. “I told the parents if they didn’t learn basic maths, then their employers would exploit them,” said Shikdar.
Another teacher of a primary school in Tangra said the boys have been engaged as help in small eateries or to supply goods to stores.
Metro reported last week that some schools are recording thin attendance in classes IX to XII because many students of this age group have taken up menial jobs to support their families amid the pandemic. This trend is apparent in the primary classes now.
Krishnangshu Mishra, the headmaster of Dakshin Chatra High School in Baduria block of North 24-Parganas district, said, some of the students of Class V are irregular in classes because they were helping in their family business of binding bidis.
“Before the pandemic, the families could afford engaging the labourers. But as the business suffered losses in the past two year, they are engaging their kids to save up the cost,” said Mishra, the general secretary of West Bengal Headmasters’ Association.