Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Schools set for reopening fete

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Special assemblies and free distribution of textbooks, schoolbags and umbrellas will mark ‘Praveshanotsavam,’ an event organised in schools across the State on the first day of every academic year to welcome children in class 1, in the district on Monday.

Nearly 5,000 of these children who have joined government and aided schools will receive the bags and umbrellas at a function organised by the City Corporation at the Government Girls’ Higher Secondary School, Manacaud, in the morning.

Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Vijayakumar will inaugurate the function.

Under a Rs. 15-lakh project of the Corporation, each student will receive a bag and an umbrella that cost Rs. 309. The civic body has set apart another Rs. 15 lakh for the distribution of uniforms and umbrellas to children in nurseries and anganwadis, which will be given away in the coming days, said G.R. Anil, Chairman, Health and Education Standing Committee of the Corporation.

The project covers 101 lower primary schools in the district. Mr. Anil said a study conducted by the Corporation last year found that only eight per cent of the students in government schools hailed from families with a steady income.

“In some schools, this is not even one per cent. This acute economic backwardness underscored the importance of expanding the project to children in aided schools as well, instead of limiting it to corporation schools,” Mr. Anil said.

At St. Mary’s Higher Secondary School, Pattom, over 1,500 students in classes 5 to 9 will be accorded a formal welcome at the school auditorium and distributed textbooks free. Textbooks are distributed free of cost to students up to classes 8 in government and aided schools under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.

The teachers will lead students to their classes. “We have already issued identity cards to the students detailing their admission number and class,” said George Mathew, Principal.

At St. Joseph’s Higher Secondary School, over 250 students in classes 5 to 8 will be welcomed at a special assembly complete with distribution of sweets.

However, Jose Cyriac, Principal, expressed concern over the water shortage in the city and its possible fallout on the conduct of classes.

Mr. Cyriac said that his school would be forced to shut down “if the problem of water shortage persists for a couple of days more.”

The St. Mary’s school relies on well water.

The two schools have registered an upsurge in the number of applicants.

Men and women constables will be posted on the premises of schools with the commencement of the new academic year on Monday.

This was disclosed at the meeting of the office-bearers of residents’ associations in Medical College police station limits held here on Sunday.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Project to improve school standards unveiled
ViCTERS programme
Cabinet nod for draft IPRs policy on traditional knowledge
Wages of pump operators to be hiked
Chennithala’s plea to Manmohan
Expenses soar, yields decline
Steps to improve academic quality
Steps to implement tribal rights law
Resentment against loan waiver norms
Pipeline repairs still on
‘Tighten laws to stop project delays’
Corporation staff give up holiday
Golf Club to be taken over soon?
Directive on deploying elephants
Schools set for reopening fete
School puts off reopening
Thiruvananthapuram Today

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu