Lice attack! Students in Delhi to get combs and shampoos
Students of a Delhi municipal corporation-run school may not be suffering from bad marks, but they are surely suffering from a bad lice problem. This revelation came to the fore at a recent parent-teacher meeting held at a South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC)-run school. The authorities are now working out the finances to provide combs and lice-shampoos to all the 2,50,000 students.
'Prevalent problem among school children, needs to be addressed fast'
Chairperson of the SDMC education committee, Nandini Sharma, said this is a prevalent problem faced by "several children studying in our schools," but they don't wish to speak about it. But "this health problem needs to be addressed fast," she added. For this, they will soon float a proposal on necessary expenditure and within two months, the students will receive their kits, she said.
Workshops, campaigns to be organized, lice-shampoos, combs to be distributed
Among other initiatives, Sharma said that in all of the SDMC's 581 schools, awareness workshops and campaigns will be held for parents. There, tips to tackle with the problem at home will be shared, for which NGOs and corporate houses will also be roped in. The whole family needs to be lice-free to ensure a permanent solution, she added.
Children want English, computer education: 'English-medium school in each ward'
Another key feedback that the teachers received in their meetings with the parents is about students' desire to learn English and computers. Acting on this, SDMC now plans to start an English-medium school in each ward. These schools will be treated as 'model schools,' and "will be completely English-medium, unlike our earlier plan where we wanted to have a section which would be English-medium."
Enrolment rate continues to decline, SDMC official expresses concern
Sharma also expressed concern at the falling enrolment rate, with SDMC schools seeing over 72,000 fewer enrolment in the past five years. Moreover, for the 2017-18 session, the primary classes of SDMC schools saw 17,535 fewer students being enrolled, as compared to the earlier batch.
