West Bengal school headmasters have been asked by the Education Department to submit the number of students who are having digital devices.
West Bengal School Education department has instructed all the headmasters of state-run educational institutions to submit the number or percentage of students having smartphones, laptops, or tablets. Headmasters across the state-run school have to submit the record of the students who are studying in their schools.
"You are requested to provide this office information regarding the number of students or the percentage of students having digital devices (smartphone/ computer/ laptop). The report should be sent soon positively," the department said in a statement.
The headmaster of Jadavpur Vidyapith Parimal Bhattacharya said that "70 per cent to 80 per cent of our students have smartphones and we have submitted the report to the department a few days back. For the rest of 20-30 per cent students, his school is taking several steps like preparing audio clips of lectures which are sent to a school WhatsApp group from where the students not in possession of smartphone can hear and note down the points."
"We are also planning to use the corpus in possession of the school for arranging smart devices for students not having android sets. We can also think about giving tuition to a small group of students following social distancing norms," he said.
Bhattacharya told a media house that his school and other institutions are waiting for the guidelines from the School Education department before deciding on the matter. A school department official said in the city 70-90 per cent students in the state-run or state-aided schools are in possession of smartphones or tablets going by the reports submitted by at least 20 schools in this regard.
"Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Education Minister Partha Chatterjee have repeatedly stressed on bridging the digital divide and reaching out to every student. If we get a fair idea about the exact percentage break-up we can devise a strategy accordingly and advise the schools to follow the model in their own way," the official said. He said the findings of the report will be made known later after careful scrutiny.
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