Schools reopen with teachers out on BLO duty, hearings on campuses

Kolkata: The new academic session began on Friday in state-run schools in Kolkata, even as many campuses remained occupied for SIR hearings and several teachers stayed away on BLO duty, creating a manpower shortage.The state school education department asked schools to celebrate a week-long "Students' Week", starting with "Book Day" on Friday. However, several teachers who were assigned BLO duty did not return to their campuses because their SIR exercises continued. School heads said they expected challenging days ahead as they tried to run regular classes and cover the syllabus.
At Bhawanipur Mitra Institution, some rooms in both buildings remained occupied for SIR hearings. "Eleven of our teachers are still performing BLO duties. But we have to run the school at any cost. So, other teachers are taking extra responsibilities. The new academic session has just begun, so regular classes are required to cover the syllabus for the first summative," said headmaster Raja Dey.At Rani Rashmoni High School, classes resumed on Friday amid queues of people waiting for SIR hearing on the campus. The school had about 14 teachers, of whom five were engaged in SIR duty. Syed Mohsin Imam, headmaster of the school on S N Banerjee Road, said: "Classes have started in full swing from today but it would be difficult to manage until the teachers return to the school. However, the SIR hearing going on our campus is not causing much inconvenience as we have adequate number of classrooms."A BLO in Tollygunge said, "Now that the syllabus from primary to class IX has been divided into three summatives, I want to return to my school duty. But unless the SIR assignments end, I cannot join back."As per the instructions of the state school education dept, Friday was ‘Book Day', while Saturday is scheduled for environment- or community-based activities. Educational and co-curricular activities were slated on Monday, and Tuesday was kept for creativity workshops and life-skill enhancement. Students were supposed to be taken on exposure visits and engaged in awareness programmes on Wednesday, while the closing day event, including fairs and camps, was to take place on Thursday.Narayan Das Bangur Multipurpose School headmaster Sanjay Barua said, "The new academic session has begun, but 12 permanent teachers and the only Group C staff member are absent. As it is an integrated school, I have to be in school from 7.30 am to 4.30 pm. Today is Book Day, so I have to distribute books among students from primary to secondary."At Taltala Girls' High School, all permanent teachers, including the teacher-in-charge, Susmita Mandal, are performing BLO duties. Mandal said, "Today I distributed hearing notices."A Bengali teacher who was also a BLO in the Shyambazar area said, "I checked answer scripts for the final examination while doing SIR duty. My students will suffer now as it's a new session for them."