Teacher the counsels students in school

The Calcutta High Court on Monday directed the removal of chairperson of West Bengal Board of Primary Education ( WBBPE) Manik Bhattacharya. The Court also directed that Mr. Bhattacharya will appeal before the Court on Tuesday.

Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay said that WBBPE secretary Ratna Chakraborty Bagchi can function as the chairperson of WBBPE till the State government appoints a new chairman. The Court was adjudicating a matter of appointment of about 269 teachers State run schools over allegations that they did not pass the eligibility test. The petitioner had approached the Court alleging that the 269 candidates were given an additional one number (marks) for a wrong question out of around 23 lakh aspirants in the Teachers’ Eligibility Test (TET) in 2014.

Last week the Court had sought some documents from the WBBPE relating to the process of allocating additional one mark to a section of examinees. The counsels appearing for petitioners pointed out the documents though several years old appear to be new. The Court then held the chairperson of WBBPE responsible for it and said he cannot continue in the past.

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Justice Gangopadhyay had earlier this month directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe appointments of 269 primary school teachers in State run primary schools. “In view of the illegality committed in respect of the second panel (termed as Additional Panel, by the Secretary of the Board), which is wholly illegal and giving illegal appointment to 269 candidates by a queer method unknown to law, I direct the Central Bureau of Investigation (‘CBI’, for short) to start investigation by registering a case immediately against the Board,” the order had stated.

Justice Gangopadhyay had directed CBI to probe appointments of teaching and non teaching staff in State run schools in at least eight cases starting November 2021. The Court has also set up an special investigation team (SIT) of the CBI to look into cases of irregularities in recruitment of teaching and non-teaching staff in West Bengal government sponsored and aided secondary schools.

Students who have come back to school after spending most of their time indoors for the better part of the last two years are excited to get on the ground and play. However, from students who have come to school for the first time to teenagers in high school, many schools are observing a dip in sports skills among students.

The schools are taking the approach of letting children play the sports they want for quite some time before beginning the task of training them for competitions.

“Children definitely want to play or even merely jump and run around a playground. Our physical training teachers are slowly teaching them the basic skills involved in games. They are starting off with warm-up and other small activities before venturing into games. Due to rain in the first week of school, we could not let children play too much. But now, they are all happy to be on the ground,” said Selvaraj, Principal, ACTS Secondary School.

With no regular practice and no specific instructions, although children are eager to play, their strength and stamina have taken a hit, schools have noted. Some schools believe that it is necessary to start by restoring their strength and stamina.

“We have focused merely on getting them to strengthen their core so that other movements come easily. This whole month (June), we taught them 21 different asanas in yoga to strengthen the core and other muscle groups. We are going to use this to launch them into other sports, endurance training and fitness,” explained Shashank N.N., Head of Department, Sports, Narayana Group of Institutions.

When it comes to the disciplinary aspects of physical education, students are yet to catch up with the levels seen before the pandemic. Schools have observed that students look dull or bored during assembly sessions, mass PT drills and body movements.

Mr. Shashank says, “With any activity, you have to engage them. It is just a question of motivating them and providing the right frame rather than saying they are bored.”

While the younger students are all for playing, the older ones, especially adolescent girls, struggled to get on the playground in the first few days, schools noted. With the changes brought about by puberty and some weight gain because of the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions, adolescents were not comfortable running and playing with their classmates. Those who had come to school for the first time displayed signs of separation anxiety when they were left in the play zone.

“For the first few weeks, the first graders were scared and wanted someone older to be present in the room while they played. They wanted to stay close to their teachers. They are slowly getting used to it,” said Gayatri Vijendra, Principal, Podar International School, Magadi Road. She added that while children continue to be good at individual games, like chess, many have forgotten the rules when it comes to team sports, like cricket and football.

A small student is choosing a textbook

By Thu Tam – Translated by Anh Quan