Minister for General Education V. Sivankutty, on Saturday, reiterated the government’s commitment to distribution of textbooks and uniforms in the State in a time-bound manner despite the COVID-19 challenges.
He was speaking after inaugurating the distribution of textbooks for Class I students and free handloom uniforms for the new academic year at the Teacher Training Institute, Manacaud, here.
As many as 2.62-crore first-volume textbooks across 288 titles will be distributed through 13,064 societies in the State this year. The distribution had resumed on May 24 in the wake of certain relaxations obtained during the lockdown.
Uniforms for more than 9.39 lakh students for the 2020-21 academic year had reached the distribution centres. As much as 39 lakh metres of cloth had been arranged for the uniforms. Students who do not get uniforms would be given an allowance of ₹600, the Minister said.
Minister for Industries P. Rajeeve said Kerala being a State that provided uniforms and textbooks to students in a time-bound manner, there was confidence that it would be no different this time despite the pandemic. Minister for Food and Civil Supplies and Minister for Transport Antony Raju who attended the function said it was a big achievement.
Mr. Sivankutty inaugurated the textbook distribution for Class 1 by handing it over to S. Aswathi, mother of Class 1 student V. Kaushal.
Mr. Raju kicked off the free uniform distribution for Class 2 by handing it over to M. Mahesh, father of student Kavya M.
