Initiative to ensure safety, health of govt school students launched

CHENNAI: In a bid to create confidence among students to continue their studies, the state government has launched a new initiative. It aims to provide a healthy environment and to impart security in the minds of children studying in the government elementary and middle schools across the state.

Under the title – ‘Quality Component -- Safety and Security’ -- about 20 lakh students in more than 31,000 government schools will be benefited from the programme.

A senior official from the School Education Department told DT Next that in order to ensure students’ safety and protect them from all the issues, including health hazards, an advisory committee has been established in all the schools.

He said that a survey would be conducted in all the schools with regard to the requirements, which would further facilitate the students as well as teachers. Stating that the state government has already allocated an initial amount of Rs 6.24 crore, the official said each school would be given an amount of Rs 2,000 per month.

“A total of 31,210 elementary and middle schools will be benefited,” he said adding, “management of each school should follow the guidelines issued for the programme.”

The official said that the schools should also ensure that the school premises, classrooms, computer rooms, libraries, labs, ramps, handrails, and furniture should be kept clean and for that cleaning materials could be purchased.

“The schools were instructed not only to follow the guidelines for the programme, but also for maintaining proper inventory for their purchases.”

Pointing out that an action taken report should be submitted by the schools to the concerned district chief education officer, he said the authorities would conduct a surprise check whether the ‘Quality Component -- Safety and Security programme’ has been successfully implemented.

“Apart from the programme, screening of the children will be done with a systematic approach,” he said adding “training regarding health issues at the school level is given to headmasters of the schools and accordingly a nodal teacher at the school level will be selected to coordinate the implementation of the health programme.”