The Education Minister of West Bengal Partha Chatterjee informed on Monday that the government will bring Class 5 towards the primary level from January 2020. The Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also announced, during the meeting with the education minister, setting up of the required infrastructure in schools where fifth standard classes will start from January 2020.
“Rooms for class 5 are already there in integrated schools (those having both primary and secondary sections). In one year, we will have lots of time for the creation of rooms in other institutions which don’t have similar facilities,” the minister said.
It was also announced that steps are to be taken to bring down Class 5 towards the primary level and also to recruit graduates as an intern for teaching posts as notified by the CM on January 14.
Asked about recruiting graduates as interns, Mr. Chatterjee said, “This is not recruitment. Interns are not recruited. We are evaluating the whole situation in different institutions and mulling over the scope to get interns.”
On the issue of pass-fail at classes five and eight, Mr. Chatterjee said, “We are not against the pass-fail system. But it has to be seen that those who have failed should not be driven out of schools but instead are allowed to attend special classes.”
Speaking of the question papers of that the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) being leaked in West Bengal, he notified that the state will write to the Centre to reconsider the decision to hold re-examination of two papers on the same day in February since it would cause inconvenience to the candidates eventually.