School uniform: Its elementary

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) projects worth `523.01 crore will be carried out in the state this academic year, Education Minister P K Abdu Rabb said at a press meet here on Monday.The Centre has given nod for the projects, he said.The students in the elementary level will be distributed two sets of uniform along with textbooks for which Rs 37.52 crore has been set aside. However, boys who are not from the SC/ST or BPL category will not enjoy this free gift.The SSA has also earmarked funds for infrastructure development, buying classroom instruments, maintenance, teachers’ training, giving salary for health and physical education, work, art education teachers, functioning of block resource centres, cluster resource centres and so on.Computer education will be advanced by distributing 1,500 laptops in 300 schools and 1,000 laptops in block resource centres. Each district will be given Rs 50 lakh for computer education, he said.Minister said that training centres for special teachers will be started in Malappuram and Kasargod. Presently, there is only one centre in Thiruvananthapuram.On VHSE issue, minister said that he is for healthy changes in Vocational Higher Secondary Education and is not for shutting it down permanently.