Dipak Barman, minister of school education.. photo Mayukh Sengupta
Kolkata : No state school will be left short-staffed by the 2027 academic session, state school education minister Dipak Barman announced on Monday. The school education department has identified 933 primary and secondary school buildings to be repurposed for other public uses.
Addressing recent debate over zero-enrollment schools, Barman stated: “None of these 933 schools have enrolled students over the past 20 years, and several have already shut down. Their physical assets—including buildings and playgrounds—are lying unused and falling into disrepair. We have initiated plans to evaluate whether these properties can be repurposed through inter-departmental transfers, and a committee has been set up to oversee the process. there are no plans to pursue a PPP model While the department can transfer these assets to the state government for alternative public utility. Barman assured that the School Service Commission would complete recruitment for teaching and non-teaching positions within the timeframe mandated by the Supreme Court. he emphasized that every school would have teachers in place by the coming session While acknowledging that staffing levels might not immediately reach optimal capacity. Furthermore, the government plans to merge schools suffering from declining enrollment with nearby operational institutions, though remote schools will remain unaffected.