– Mita Mukherjee
The West Bengal government will set up English medium schools in every block of the state, chief minister Mamata Banerjee announced on Monday.
The chief minister announced the decision after attending the first meeting of the state cabinet of the newly elected Trinamool Congress government that came to power for the third consecutive time with landslide victory in the Assembly elections
The chief minister today said that the government would set up the English medium schools across Bengal to ensure that parents who can’t afford, can give their wards English medium education. Students coming from all communities will be able to study in the new schools, the chief minister said.
“ We want to spread the light of education to all sections of people, at every corner. So we have decided to set up English medium schools in every block in the state. Students coming from all sections, irrespective of their caste, creed and religion will be able to study in these schools,” the chief minister said.
There are as many as 341 blocks in the state.
One of the reasons for setting up the English medium schools is that students coming from underprivileged families cannot study in English medium schools because of financial constraints.
The chief minister said she was grateful to all sections of people of Bengal for voting her party to power and she would ensure that those who can’t afford are provided the opportunity to give English medium education to their wards.
In Bengal majority of the English medium schools are run by private bodies.
A senior official of the state school education department later said the details of the proposed schools were yet to be drawn up.
However, it is not clear whether the proposed institutions in each of the blocks would be on the campuses of existing state-aided Bengali medium schools or would come up as independent institutions.
The Bengal government had been harping on a plan to convert several state-aided Bengali medium schools to English medium institutions as fewer students were enrolling in state-aided schools for past many years.
In 2019, the then state government had promised to set up1000 English medium schools in Bengal to enable students in the far away districts to avail of English medium education.
Also read:
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Posted in News, States
