The Tamil Nadu government’s flagship project of free educational kits for the students of government schools has drawn flak after the supply of poor-quality products in the kits. This includes unfit uniforms, shoes, and even poor-quality geometry boxes, notebooks and school bags.
Other than the quality of the products distributed, in many places the students are yet to receive the educational kits and students have to buy shoes and new uniforms on their own. With already three months elapsed since the reopening of schools in the state, the lethargy on the part of Tamil Nadu Text Book And Educational Service Corporation has led to the students in many places not getting the kits.
In the rural and tribal areas, students are yet to receive shoes and other essential items for their educational purposes.
A teacher with a government school in Madurai while speaking to IANS said, “Generally, before the pandemic, the kits were distributed two weeks within the reopening of schools, but now things have turned upside down, and in many schools, children are yet to receive the free educational kits. This will lead to students not being able to wear new uniforms, use new instrument boxes, and carry new school bags.”
However, officials with the Textbook and Educational Services Corporation told IANS that this was not the first time that the delay in distribution took place. It is to be noted that the Textbook and Educational Services Corporation has been distributing free educational kits in the state since 2013. The corporation is in-charge of procuring textbooks, notebooks, uniforms, school bags, crayons, geometry boxes, shoes, etc.
Demands have already poured in from teachers and parents that the department stick to locally procured products as some of the batches of uniforms and shoes and slippers were not of sizes that fit the children.
