Around 200 boys studying in Class IV at three state-aided English medium primary schools in Malda district are living amid uncertainty as to how they would continue their education in the same medium from the fifth standard.

Malda doesn’t have a single state-aided English-medium high school for boys where these students can get admitted and continue their studies in upper primary and secondary classes.

Sources in the district education department said in 2019, teaching in English as the medium of instruction in primary classes was introduced in Prantapalli Primary School, Shibani Academy and Makdumpur Girls’ Primary School, all located in Malda town.

All the three are co-educational primary schools.

The decision encouraged a section of parents who got their children admitted to these primary schools with the hope that they would study in English medium at minimal expenses as the costs are borne by the government like any other state-aided primary school.

However, the problem cropped up this year as the first batch of around 300 students is ready to take admission in class V.

Apart from private schools, the Ramakrishna Mission-run Vivekananda Vidyamandir is the only option for boys to study in English medium. “Also, there are only 35 seats and students had to qualify in admission tests,” said a source.

For girls, the situation is slightly better as the Barlow Girls’ High School has options to study in English medium from the fifth standard.

“We don’t know whether my son will get admitted to class V. If he does not qualify in the admission test at Vivekananda Vidyamandir, we don’t have any option but to admit him to a Bengali medium school. The academic session will start in less than a month (from January),” said Moumita Sarkar, a parent.

Koushik Kundu, another guardian, has said if the government does not introduce English medium teaching in high schools for boys, many others like his son will be in trouble in the coming years. “There are parents like us who cannot afford to put their children in private schools,” he said.

Basanti Barman, the chairman of the district primary school council, said: “The issue has been taken up with the secondary education department. We believe it will be addressed soon.”