Prayers and morning assembly are set to return to state-aided schools in the city.

Many Madhyamik schools had done away with the system of prayers in conformity with the ruling Left Front?s policy of keeping religion out of educational institutions.

The space crunch had contributed to making an assembly of students a thing of the past in Calcutta schools affiliated to the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education.

Feeling a need to inculcate discipline and teach good habits to the GeNext, the board has now announced a string of measures. One of them makes it mandatory for all state-aided schools to hold morning prayers and assembly on a regular basis.

For the first time, the board has decided to prepare a list of songs ? some Rabindrasangeet and international classics like We shall overcome ? to be sung during assemblies or prayer sessions. The schools will have to choose one or more songs from the list.

?Subho karmo pothe dhoro nirbhoyo gaan, a Tagore composition, is one of the songs we want the students to sing every day. The theme, lyrics and the message of the song are appropriate for students. The song develops willpower and courage to tackle every situation in life,? said board president Ujjwal Basu.

The board will soon approach experts to finalise the list of songs, he added.

A series of discussions among teachers and headmasters, conducted by the board, had revealed that the students are struggling to cope with an increasing study load, peer pressure and compulsion to compete with others.

?The students must develop the strength of mind to combat this situation. Morning assembly and prayers will definitely help the schools offer some guidance,? said an official of the board.

He added that the board had a rule that makes it mandatory for each affiliated institution to hold morning assembly. Over the years, a majority of the schools in the city have done away with the practice due to lack of halls and playgrounds.

To ensure that all the schools hold daily prayers and assembly from now on, the board has conducted inspections in a number of schools where there is a lack of space and has suggested ways in which they can start the practice.

?I visited a school in south Calcutta and asked them to remove the wooden partitions that divide a large enclosure into a number of smaller rooms,? said the board president. ?The partitions can be replaced with movable ones, so that the enclosure can be used for the assembly whenever needed, and later converted to classrooms.?

Smaller institutions without large enclosed spaces have been advised to fit speakers in classrooms so that the heads of the schools can conduct the prayer from their offices.