PUNJAB CABINET OKAYS TO PROVIDE FREE UNIFORMS FOR ALL LEFT OUT BOYS STUDYING IN GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS FROM CLASS I TO VIII

Shiv Kumar:

Chandigarh, November 16: To increase enrolment, reduce the dropout rate and attract students towards the Government Schools, the Punjab Cabinet led by Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Cahnni on Tuesday decided to provide free uniforms to nearly 2.66 lakh left out boys of General Category studying in Government Schools from class I to VIII. Punjab Government will spend approx Rs. 15.98 crore in a current financial year.

This decision was taken during a Cabinet meeting here at CMO this evening.

Notably, at present School Education Department is already providing free Uniforms costing upto Rs.600 per student to all the Girls, SC boys, BPL boys studying in Government Schools from class I to VIII in Government run schools and Adarsh schools being run by the Punjab School Education Board studying as per norms of SAMAGRA SHIKSHA and also as per RTE entitlement. The number of such students is 15.03 lakh for which Rs. 90.16 crore are being spent in the current fiscal. It may be recalled that boys students belonging to general category are not provided uniforms by the Department as such students are not covered under RTE entitlement.