Eng-Beng-physics worry prompts ‘cluster' schools
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Kolkata: The West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education is set to introduce a cluster model for schools to address teacher shortage in the higher secondary section.
The council conducted a survey of all subjects being taught in Plus-II at state schools and found that around 10,000-12,000 teachers are employed for English and Bengali for 16 lakh-odd students.
The survey also revealed a teacher shortage in physics. The main reason behind the shortfall is the recent scrapping of jobs of 26,570 school staffers following a Supreme Court order, migration of teachers from rural schools to urban locations and retirements.
To ensure that education is not affected till new teachers are recruited, especially after a semester system was introduced to Plus-II with several new subjects and courses, the state council has decided on launching the cluster system, likely from Oct.
Under the cluster system, students at a school, without a teacher in a particular subject, will attend those particular classes with the students of a neighbouring school, which has a teacher in that subject.
According to the plan, the joint classes will be held for seven schools, located within a radius of 3.5km-4 km. "Our aim is to provide quality education. We have introduced new science subjects that need more attention.
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So this system will help us ensure a good learning process without merging schools or transferring teachers," said council president Chiranjib Bhattacharya.
Officials have completed the mapping of schools in Kolkata, North and South 24 Parganas, East and West Midnapore, East and West Burdwan, Howrah, and Hooghly. In each district, around 30 clusters have been identified, where they prepared subject- and course-wise clusters to address the teachers' shortage.
The exercise will soon be extended to north Bengal.
Council secretary Priyadarshini Mallick said, "The mapping of schools located in the districts in south Bengal has already been completed. We will have a meeting with the officials of regional offices to explain the plan so that the school heads in their respective districts, an be briefed about the format."
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