Kozhikode: Schools in Kozhikode district are all set to receive new entrants with the commencement of the new academic year on Monday. Nearly 40,000 tiny tots have enrolled in Class I in various schools under the three educational districts and 15 sub-educational districts in Kozhikode. About 5,000 students have been admitted to various schools in Kozhikode educational district. The number of students admitted to schools in Thamarassery and Vadakara educational districts is likely to be higher. The exact figures of the students enrolled will be known only on June 9, the last day of admission, District Education Officer N. Sasidharan said.

Last year, the total number of new entrants was 43,000. Kozhikode district has 1,043 lower primary and upper primary schools. Around 150 students have been admitted to the three special schools in the district.

Many of the new entrants have already undergone training at nursery schools and anganwadis. New comers will be treated to a festive ambience on Monday. Decorated classrooms and surprise gifts await them.

The district-level inauguration of the school reopening programme, `Praveshanolsavam,' will be held at Puthoor Upper Primary School at Puthiyangadi at 10 a.m. Kozhikode Mayor M. Bhaskaran will inaugurate the programme. A.K. Saseendran, MLA, will distribute free books to the students on the occasion.

Mr. Sasidharan said steps had been taken to lighten the school bags of students from this year. Students need not carry water bottles to school. The Parent Teacher Association (PTA) or the school authorities would make arrangements to provide drinking water to the students. Notebooks have not been made mandatory. Students can take down notes on paper and file them later. The textbooks would be divided term-wise, reducing the size of the books by one-third. This was one of decision taken by the Director of Public Instruction and the Education Department to lighten the schoolbags of students. The school authorities would have to provide the term-wise textbooks to students, Mr. Sasidharan said.

The fitness certificate of schools has to be obtained before July 15. As of now, 12 schools, including 11 in the private sector, have thatched sheds. Last year, 162 schools figured in the list of institutions in danger. Nadapuram sub-district has six such schools, Kummamal, three, Perambra, two and Thamarassery, one. Last July, two students were killed and several others injured when the shed of a Panangad North Aided Upper Primary School collapsed.

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