A section of students who are staying away from physical classes at government schools are those who were unable to attend online classes or were irregular, said heads of several schools.
A detachment from studies has developed in them, intensified by not having an atmosphere of studies at home and their parents not stressing on the need for it, said the heads of at least two schools.
In-person classes for VIII and XII started on campuses in Bengal from February 3.
In several schools, students need to be pulled up to the level of the class they are in and for the “rigorous remedial” they have to be on campus, teachers said.
At least two schools on the city’s outskirts have scheduled meetings with parents next week to address and counsel them on the need for their children to come to school.
“We have noticed that in the current Class X (those who were promoted in January), the attendance on some days is below 50 per cent. Their need is immense because they have Madhyamik next year and we need them in school so we can pull them up,” said Soumen Pal, the headmaster of Udaypur Haradayal Nag Adarsha Vidyalaya near Belghoria.
Many of the students could not attend online classes because of lack of access to devices and the detachment over the period has only grown, he said.
Pal said currently, they were only holding revision classes and brushing up the foundation knowledge. Only after this will they proceed with the syllabus.
“Students who did not attend online classes or were not regular are the ones who are not coming for in-person classes,” said Subhra Chakraborty, the headmistress of Howrah Jogesh Chandra Girls’ School.
Schools had been closed since March 2020 and classes were held online as a precaution against Covid.
Teachers said economic hardships that families faced during the pandemic forced them into situations that they are now finding difficult to leave.
Many in the suburbs migrated to other states for work and in the city, some students took up odd jobs to support their parents.
“A section of students in classes IX and X are not coming to school possibly because they took some job in the past few months because of economic hardships. In such a situation it is difficult to reach out to them,” said Anindya Chattopadhyay, headmaster, Kasba Chittaranjan High School.
A headmaster in South 24-Parganas said that some families believe the student will get a degree whether they attend school or not.
“Since in-person classes were not held and yet they were promoted, a section of students and parents think they can get away without attending school and they will also pass the board exams,” said Chandan Maity, the headmaster of Krishnachandrapur High School in Mathurapur, South 24-Parganas.
Krishnachandrapur High School and Udaypur Haradayal Nag Adarsha Vidyalaya will hold meetings with parents to understand their situation and counsel them to send their children to school.
At Howrah Jogesh Chandra Girls’ School, teachers have been asked to call parents of those students not attending classes to understand the reason for their absence.
