The School Education Department is going to launch “Swachh Pathshala”, a cleanliness initiative, from October 2, whereby each school will be asked to rate itself on sanitation parameters.
Schools will have to do a self-assessment in 39 parameters, which have been circulated among 29,000 government schools and over 10,000 private schools in the State, Education Secretary B. Janardhan Reddy said at an event in Hyderabad.
The exhaustive list of parameters covers aspects pertaining to personal hygiene of students, standards of hygiene maintained by kitchen staff, availability of water and other facilities in toilets, toilet behaviour, environmental hygiene and advocacy initiatives.
The self assessment aspect includes month-end evaluation of the schools’ status against these parameters, and display of the same in the notice board, besides proposing measures to improve the school’s rating.
By October 2 next year, the schools will be assessed based on their self-assessment reports, and five star rating will be given to the ones with best hygiene practices, which will entail incentives, Janardhan Reddy informed.
About 50 countries in the world could eradicate diseases such as diarrhoea, pneumonia and viral fevers, in schoolchildren, through the implementation of better hygiene practices, he said, explaining the aim of the programme.
This will also help increase the attendance percentage in government schools, he added. ‘Swachh Vidyalaya’ was also launched jointly by ITC Limited where Hyderabad Mayor Bonthu Ram Mohan and Director Municipal Administration T.K. Sridevi took part.#KhabarLive
