The West Bengal government is considering a major review of its school education infrastructure after finding that 933 primary, upper-primary, secondary and higher-secondary schools have had no student
enrolment for the past five years, with some recording zero enrolment for nearly two decades.
School Education Minister Deepak Barman said a committee has been formed to examine the future of the land, buildings and playgrounds belonging to these schools, which have remained largely unused because of the absence of students.
Barman clarified that no decision has been taken so far to hand over any school to a private entity under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model. He also said that no school has yet been identified for such a model.
The government is examining whether the unused land and infrastructure could be put to other public uses. One possibility under consideration is transferring the properties to other government departments, depending on their requirements.
However, the minister stressed that low or zero enrolment alone would not automatically lead to the closure of a school. Schools located in remote or sparsely populated areas, particularly where there is no alternative school nearby, will continue to operate, he said.
The government plans to conduct a fresh assessment in areas where several schools are located close to one another. If one school is facing excess enrolment while another nearby school has very few or no students, authorities may review the future of the schools concerned.
Alongside the review of schools with low or zero enrolment, the state government is also focusing on addressing the shortage of teachers. Barman said the government aims to ensure that schools have teachers by the 2027 academic year, provided the ongoing recruitment process through the School Service Commission (SSC) is completed within the stipulated timeframe.
The School Education Department is currently pursuing the recruitment of 26,000 teachers. Once that process is completed, further vacancies are expected to be filled through future SSC recruitment drives based on the requirements of individual schools.
However, the government has not guaranteed that every school in the state will immediately have an adequate number of teachers. Future recruitment will be carried out according to the teacher requirement identified across schools.
