Tirupati: HMs reluctant to collect Vidya Kanuka kits now

Tirupati: With the alarming rise in Covid positive cases and uncertainty over the exact start of next academic year, headmasters of government schools have decided not to take Jagananna Vidya Kanuka (JVK) kits for now.

They represented to the government to stop supply of these kits for now which are to be distributed to students of Class I to X studying in government schools in the state.

It may be recalled that the state government has accorded approvals to procure and supply students kits consisting of three pairs of uniforms, a set of notebooks and textbooks, a pair of shoes and two pairs of socks and a school bag to all the students of government, mandala parishad, municipal and other government schools.

In addition to these items, boys will get belts. From this academic year, the government has decided to include a dictionary too in the kit. For this, the government has earmarked an estimated budget of Rs 731.30 crore for 2021-22 out of which the Central share would be Rs.230.68 crore.

The headmasters were asked to collect the kits for their students from the school complexes. However, they were not willing to do so at this time when hundreds of teachers have died of Covid in the state.

Also, they were citing the reasons like lack of manpower to assist them in handling kits during this vacation and it would be difficult to safeguard the material in the absence of additional rooms and watchmen till they are distributed to the students after reopening which has become uncertain for now.

The president of Chittoor District Headmasters' Association B Chengal Raju told The Hans India that their association has represented to the commissioner of school education, education minister and the Chief Minister to halt the process of handing over the kits in this uncertain period. However, he made it clear that they were not against the scheme. In fact, they got more admissions last year as the children were attracted to it.

But due to the severity of Covid and prevailing curfew restrictions it would be difficult for them to go and collect the material. Also, the schools are not equipped with any facilities to store the kits and they don't have any manpower and security. For these reasons they wanted to wait till the reopening of schools, he said.

In Chittoor district alone there were around 500 school complexes in which 5,945 schools of various managements under government are there. The scheme will benefit 3.80 lakh students in the district while nearly 43 lakh students will get these kits in the state in 4,000 plus school complexes.