Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Government will accord due priority to measures aimed at checking the rising menace of drug abuse on school campuses and to create awareness against the trend among students, stated General Education Minister V Sivankutty.
Anti-drug awareness committees will be constituted in all schools, while shadow police personnel will be deployed at some of the schools.
Arrangements will be made to facilitate confidential sharing of information on drug abuse on school premises to the Excise Department.
A declaration on ‘Litter-free schools’ will be made on June 5 by ensuring that no littering of waste materials happens on the school campuses.
The Motor Vehicles Department will ensure the fitness of school vehicles and inspections will be conducted on a regular note to ensure that none of these vehicles carries students beyond their capacity. The criminal antecedents of the school bus crew will also be verified and certified by the police.
Meanwhile, the service of counsellors will be extended to more schools to address various problems faced by students. Presently, the service of counsellors from the Women and Child Development Department is available in as many as 1,012 schools.
Special song for Praveshanolsavam
Adding more vigour to the school reopening ceremony (praveshanolsavam), a song written by noted poet Murugan Kattakkada and composed by Vijay Karun, will be sung on the occasion.
The song is rendered by a troupe led by noted playback singer Manjari. An original track of its background score too has been brought out to enable the children to sing along.
Saturday working day: No decision yet
A decision with regard to making Saturdays a working day for schools will be made after due consultations with the teachers’ organizations and the experts concerned, stated Sivankutty.
“The new National Education Policy stipulates the Lower Primary Schools to have 800 working hours an academic year while it should be 1,000 and 1,200 hours respectively for Upper Primary and High Schools. To ensure this, the total number of education days will have to be extended up to 220 days a year,” he pointed out.