KOLKATA: Several children across Kolkata went to their first offline classes on Monday, courtesy Paray Sikshalay programme.
They met new friends and teachers sitting at open classrooms at places like school grounds, temple courtyard, parks and community fields. While originally meant for government schools, multiple private schools also stepped in as they welcomed their students in open-air classrooms armed with sanitizers, thermal guns and a smile on their face.
“I always used to think school friends and teachers can only be seen on a screen. Today is the first time I saw teachers and school friends in real life,” said Isha Das, a Class I student of Kailash Vidyamandir who attended an open-air class at Chetla Agrani ground on Monday.
Similar was the reaction of Class-II student of Future Foundation, Kumar Mangalam, who could identify two of his screen friends in real as he came to the ground near his school for a game of football.
While government schools like Ballygunge Government High School and Jodhpur Park Boys school conducted open air classes at their own grounds, Sri Dido Maheshwari Vidyalaya conducted their classes at Tara Sundari Park in north Kolkata.
Among private schools, Ram Mohan Mission set up microphones, loudspeakers and chairs for batches of students from classes V to VII as they took the lessons on a ground beside the school at Lake Gardens. At St Augustine’s, picnic umbrellas were placed in school ground and tables, chairs and white boards were lifted from classrooms to make a large open-air classroom that children loved.
“We held classes for KG students. It was a blissful occasion seeing the little ones back,” said St Augustine’s principal Father Rodney Borneo.
The parents were amused as well. Standing outside Ram Mohan Mission school was homemaker Dipannita Ghosh as she saw from a distance her daughter Rajneeta write a History worksheet at the open air school. “On other days, it takes a lot of pain to wake her up and make her sit for the online classes. But on Monday, she was up before us,” she said Ghosh.
“Today we made them write an essay on how they spent these two years away from school and I tell you each of the write-ups showed the pain they went through,” said Joyita Saha, a teacher of Ballygunge Government High School.
Future Hope school that also has an NGO that works with vulnerable children from streets and slums, took their middle school section to Rajarhat, for offline classes.
Mayor Firhad Hakim, who was at Chetla Agrani ground where eight schools participated in open air schooling in separate enclosures, said the KMC was ready to offer help to government and private schools in setting up drinking water portals, bio toilets and even shamianas to promote the concept of open air schools. “I hope very soon children would be able to go back to school and resume normal studies. But till then, let’s promote this ancient culture of open-air studies,” said Hakim.
