At a time when the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (HRD) wants to make school education uniform across the country,the state government is likely to have another education board,this time under the Panchayat department. The West Bengal Panchayat department has decided to come up with a separate Board and according to the officials an Act for the same will be passed in the state Assembly. By having a separate Board we can increase the enrollment and bring in more children between six and 14 years of age group. The infrastructure is already in place for setting up the Board, said M N Roy,Principal Secretary of the Panchayat department. Under the Panchayat department,there are about 16,045 Sishu Siksha Kendras (SSK) and 2,000 Madhyamik Siksha Kendras (MSK) in the state,where about 19 lakh children are enrolled so far. The SSKs run Classes from I to IV,while the MSKs run Classes from V to VII. Once there is a separate Board in place,the MSKs can teach till Class X and give certificates to the students,qualifying the exams. If we want to bring these schools under the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (WBBSE),then we cannot retain the teachers. The recruitment in the schools under the WBBSE is done through the School Service Commission, said Roy. These teachers have been teaching in the schools for a very long time. Once we have a separate Board in place,the teachers can be retained, added Roy. There are about 50,000 para teachers (Siksha Sahayaks) working in the schools across the state and the announcement of a separate board would mean regularising them. The board will be set up for conducting examination,controlling and regulating the schools, said Anisur Rehman,Minister for Panchayat department. The teachers will be retained and their salaries will be increased from time to time and they will get post-retirement benefits also, he added.
