Punjab Government to Distribute Free School Uniforms to Over 13 Lakh Students

Source: NDTV Education

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 a 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.

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