Punjab government on Friday announced that it will distribute free uniforms to as many as 13,48,632 government school students from Class 1 to 8 at their homes for the academic session 2021-22.
New Delhi:
Punjab government on Friday announced that it will distribute free uniforms to as many as 13,48,632 government school students from Class 1 to 8 at their homes for the academic session 2021-22 as grants of Rs 80.92 crore have been released by the education department.
All girls studying in these classes and SC, ST, BPL category boys will be given free uniforms at the cost of Rs 600 per uniform.
He added that out of total of 13,48,632 students, 7,65,024 are girl students while 5,08,436 are SC category boys and 75,172 are boys from the BPL category.
The Punjab School Education Minister Vijay Inder Singla said that the boys will be given shirts, trousers, turban (patka) or caps, sweaters, socks and shoes and girl students will be given shirts-pants or salwar-kameez; sweaters, shoes and socks.
He added that shirt pants are optional for girl students of primary classes while salwar-kameej will be mandatory as part of the free uniform for girls of upper-primary classes.
The cabinet minister said after sanctioning the required grant, detailed directions have also been issued to all district education officers for the proper arrangements of the uniforms and have also been asked to precisely follow the safety protocol while distributing uniforms to students.
He added that the funds will be credited to the School Management Committees (SMCs) for the purchase of uniforms.
The SMCs have also been asked to provide two masks to each student for their personal safety in view of the pandemic, the minister said.
“Captain Amarinder Singh led state government has continuously been taking precautionary measures to ensure the safety of the students amid Covid-19 pandemic. Apart from providing the uniform at doorsteps, no students will be called in the schools for measurements. Instead, the staff would obtain the size from parents and provide free uniforms as per desired sizes,” Mr Singla said.
The parameters for the purchase of quality uniform have already been fixed and there would be no interference of officials of the education department and neither would they issue any direction, verbal or written, to any SMC for the purchase of uniforms from any particular vendor or place, the minister said.
“If any official found interfering with the purchase process, strict disciplinary action will be taken against the official found guilty,” he added.
