Govt school kids to get shoes, socks instead of slippers

At present both boys and girls, studying in government and government aided schools, had received footwear made of velcro sandal. A senior official from the Directorate of School Education told DT Next that government has issued orders to procure shoes through tender process. “As per data, as many as 28,64,885 boys and girls will be benefited from the new scheme, which will be implemented from the coming academic year,” he added.

Stating that government’s decision to introduce shoes came after complaints during the rainy season, he said, “Taking this as a serious issue since every year dengue cases getting increased, the government has decided to distribute free shoes and socks to the students.” Claiming that the tender to procure shoeswill be floated in January first week, the official said that the government will be spendingadditional Rs 10.02 crore to provide shoes from reputed organisation, which will be selected in the tender process.

“Each student will get two pairs of white or black socks along with a pair of black shoes”, the official said adding shoeswill come in different sizes - for Class 6, for Class 7 and 8 and for Class 9 and 10”.

He also said that the government has spent Rs 58.36 crore to provide of slippers to students.

Earlier, the government was planning to distribute free shoes to the students from Class 1 to Class 10. However, after getting feedback from teachers and academicians that shoes will not be convenient for primary school children, the School Education Department excluded those students from the beneficiary’s list.