Demanding Reopening of Schools, Students Start New Slogan 'Pora Hobe'

While schools and colleges across India are reopening, West Bengal is yet to issue guidelines on physical classes. Recently students of Jadavpur University started protesting against online classes by holding physical classes on roads. Some students from Presidency University too plan to attend classes in the open in the coming week. Students have started using the slogan ‘Pora Hobe’, similar to the famous slogan ‘Khela Hobe’.

Students are demanding to reopen college and universities immediately. Students of Jadavpur University sat on the footpath next to gate number 4 to attend their classes. In the dust and smoke, classes are going on one side of the gate. Professors are taking classes and students are studying sitting on the ground. The initiative, claim students, drew inspiration from Rabindranath Tagore’s open classrooms at Shantiniketan.

Physical classes in school were stopped on March 14, 2020 in due to Coronavirus. Since then, schools and colleges have been closed for about a year and a half.

A member of SFI in Jadavpur University said, “everything is going on, West Bengal Assembly Election was not postponed this year. Only colleges, universities are not opening. Not everybody can afford the luxury of online classes. So the students who are really serious about their studies are suffering for a very long time. Students raised the question that, Why cannot the government restart colleges and universities with limited capacity? It is not feasible for everyone to study online. The government has opened pubs and malls and cinema halls, but why are the educational institutions not being opened ?”

Already in front of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kolkata, classes have been arranged under the trees for the students by an organization of students from Presidency, Jadavpur and St. Xavier’s University. Demands for the immediate reopening of colleges and universities and also the question raised of why fees are being taken from students when the institutions are closed. The organization has planned to open such ‘tree schools’ in various districts in the coming days. However, chief minister Mamata Banerjee has already hinted that the school may reopen on alternate Days after Puja.

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