The tutorial classes will be held in state-run schools on weekends and the government plans to rope in part-time teachers for the job.

Last year, the school education department had asked the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) to conduct a survey “Implications of Private Tuition”, and the SCERT report is due in March this year.

“At present, private tuition is banned. We are going for a comprehensive survey. If we find that students are benefiting from private tuition, we will make arrangements for tuitions for all,” said School Education Minister Partha De.

In December last, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had softened his stand on private tuitions. At an annual conference of All Bengal Teachers Association (ABTA), the CPM-backed teachers’ body, he had said, “I cannot ask you not to take up private tuition. But you will have to think of the interest of the underprivileged.

Sources at the school education department said tutorials would be mainly for the underprivileged. “The state government cannot do anything for students who have resources to take tuition.”

“But for the disadvantaged, we are going to start tutorial classes all across the state,” said a senior education department official.