The first day of Paray Sikshalaya, formerly Paray Pathshala, is the state government’s initiative for open-air teaching for junior classes as a Covid-19 precaution, ran into rough weather.
Guardians of four high schools in Siliguri on Monday agitated at Kanchenjunga stadium against the “lack of basic infrastructure” like toilets and drinking water.

Teachers at Nadia’s Santipur Municipal High School were compelled to shift students of Class VII to classrooms from the open-air facility on campus after 37 students made a written appeal to the headmaster for indoor classes as they were feeling unwell under the sun.

Teachers of a primary school in Netra village of Diamond Harbour in South 24-Parganas had to shift open-air classes to the classroom after two group of goons clashed and hurled bombs at each other, scaring the students. The teachers immediately spoke to senior officials and took their permission to move kids to the classroom.

These incidents exposed the lack of infrastructure at several schools across the state on Monday.

Sources in the education department said the crisis of infrastructure as well lack of teachers led many schools in the state to hold classes either on the playground of their school or at community halls available in the locality.

This defeated the purpose of the Paray Sikshalay concept because it had sought to take schools to the doorstep of students.

According to the directive of the education department, each class from Classes V to VII will have neighbourhood schools twice a week and they would be provided mid-day meal. However, primary classes can be held every day.

Pointing out the problems of the neighbourhood school initiative, teachers of high schools in rural areas said students usually gathere from at least 10 to 14 villages and it was impossible for them to hold classes near their homes. So, they chose to hold such classes either on school premises or spaces available in the vicinity of their institutions.

Teachers of Bajitpur High school organised their classes for Class VII students at the school’s community hall instead at a neighbourhood space.

“It is not possible to get all students at one or two points as they live scattered in at least a dozen villages. We also have to provide them midday meals and arranging cooking facilities at multiple places is impossible. So, we held our classes at our community hall following Covid protocol,” said Prashanta Kumar Das, the headmaster of the high school.

In Siliguri, guardians questioned organising classes at the Kanchenjunga stadium instead of premises of schools.

“We were given to understand classes would be held in our neighbourhood but I had to take my daughter to Kanchenjunga stadium. The stadium lacks infrastructure like sufficient toilets or drinking water facilities,” said the guardian of a student of Siliguri Girls’ High School.

Headmistress of the high school, Atyuha Saha, said: “It was the first day and we had a few issues. We will request the authorities to resolve them.”

Many schools, however, conducted classes in the neighbourhood despite infrastructure issues. But headmasters of several schools said the initiative can’t be continued in the long run.

However, conducting primary schools in the neighbourhood was easier because of the fewer number of such institutions. Sources said there are 12,500 secondary and higher secondary schools, along with 1,500 high madrasas, across Bengal. However, there are 56,000 primary schools across the state.

“We had no problem holding classes in the neighborhood as there is at least one school within a kilometre in our district,” said Pralay Nayek, the chairman of district primary school council in Birbhum.

Birbhum district magistrate Bidhan Ray attended an open-air class at the DPSC office in Birbhum where he played with the children.

Snehamoy Chakraborty in Bolpur, Subhasish Chaudhuri in Nadia and Binita Paul in Siliguri