The school education department has decided to transfer money for school uniform directly to the respective accounts of the students of government schools in view of coronavirus lockdown in the country.
MHRD under Samagra-acentrally sponsored scheme, provides two sets of school uniforms free to everystudent in government schools up to class 8th. For this the school education department is provided a unit cost of Rs600 by Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) which was Rs 400 till2018.
Anofficial said the department had to get around 17 lakh uniforms stitched fordistribution among the students but it was difficult to get the work done inview of the ongoing COVID-19 lockdown across India.
“So, the department ismulling to directly transfer the amount to the bank accounts of the students.This is being done to facilitate the students through cash as there isuncertainty about when the lockdown will be over,” the official said.
Theannouncement was also made by Principal Secretary School education department,Asgar Samoon. “Under the present lockdown, virtually impossible to stitch anddistribute uniforms to 15 lac kids; so DBT- cash transfer of uniform cost toall kids,” Samoon wrote on twitter. He said that from next year the schooleducation department will distribute stitched uniforms to the school goingchildren.
During past years, theschool uniforms were procured at zone or school level and distributed among thechildren. But the department used to face criticism over the quality of theuniform.
Stateproject Director (SPD) Samagra, Arun Kumar Manhas meanwhile said the MHRD hasalready released an Rs 50 crore for the distribution of the school uniformsamong the kids in Jammu and Kashmir. He said the amount is disbursed to Kashmirand Jammu divisions on basis of student enrolment in schools.
“Fromlast year we tried to improve the quality of school uniform and the uniformswere procured by handloom department. This year, the process got delayed due toCOVID-19 lockdown,” he said.