CHENNAI: The State Government plans to introduce a comprehensive education programme on health and hygiene from Standard VI to enable students overcome adolescent problems, Minister for School Education Thangam Thennarasu has said.

After launching a students' rally and witnessing cultural events performed by students of different schools in Chennai as part of the Children's Day celebrations on Tuesday, Mr. Thennarasu said the proposed programme would create awareness among students on gender bias and sexual harassment. Keeping the environment clean would be part of the programme.

In the last six months, the State Government had taken various steps to improve health and education of the school children. The supply of eggs twice a week under the noon-meal scheme was one such measure. The Government was keen on ensuring "equity in education" to bridge the urban-rural divide in providing quality education, the Minister said. It was also planning to bring different streams of school education on the same platform. Mr. Thennarasu said the percentage of girls among dropouts after completing middle school and high school levels was higher than that of boys. Though the dropout rate in the State was lower than in other States, he cautioned against complacency. The Government wanted to bring it to the zero level. Through the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan and various other initiatives, the Government was striving to provide basic education to all sections irrespective of their economic or social background and to special children, Mr. Thennarasu said. He appealed to the public to extend a helping hand to the Government to achieve the goal of enrolling all children for schooling.

Director of Matriculation Schools T. Jagannathan said though awareness had grown among the managements to take steps for ensuring the safety of students, untoward incidents occurred every now and then. He stressed the need for maintaining constant vigil.

Director of School Education R. Kannan said students of 11 higher secondary schools took part in the rally. Children from 12 schools presented cultural performances.

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