Now, Ludhiana govt schools to distribute uniforms on their own
₹7.28 crore funds transferred to Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan’s district office
The state education department has directed the school management committees (SMCs) of government schools to handle the purchase and distribution process of providing uniforms to the students of Classes 1 to 8 this year.The department has also given ₹7. 28 crore funds to the district office of ‘Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan’ and the same will be transferred into the bank accounts of the respective schools on Monday.
The decision was taken by the state education department after several district officials complained about the supply of ill-fitted uniforms to schools.
In December last year, the state education department had decided to hire a private firm to provide school uniforms to government schools following which tenders were floated. But the new uniforms were not delivered in many schools till April 15. Following this, it was decided that the school heads should be given the responsibility to provide a set of uniform to each student of Classes 1 to 8. The same practice was followed till 2017.
₹600 per student
This year, 1.21 lakh students will get the free uniforms in the district out of whom 74,574 are girls, 39,511 are scheduled caste (SC) boys and 7,403 are below poverty line (BPL) boys. The uniforms will be provided to all girl students, and boys of SC and BPL categories. The schools will get ₹600 per student for purchasing shoes, socks, belt, tie, shirt, trousers, skirt, sweater and turban.
The school heads welcomed the move, saying that students would be provided uniforms timely. Head teacher of Government Primary School, Chanan Devi, Jaswinder Kaur, said, “Last year, we faced many problems with the sets of school uniforms and informed the department and the respective firm to get them exchanged. This year, the new move will help the school heads provide the uniforms of proper size and on time.”
Other instructions
In the letter issued by the state education department to all the government schools, the district education officers (DEO) and block primary education officers have been directed not to prescribe any shop and give any directions regarding the same, verbally or in written, to the school management committees for purchase of the uniforms.
Other directions mentioned in the letters are -- The school management committees can change the colour of the uniforms, the school heads should make the payment through cheques and no cash payment should be made and the school authorities should make efforts to provide proper size uniforms to the students.