Special app to monitor school toilets in Andhra Pradesh
Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy reviewing status of school education with officials and Ministers at his camp office in Tadepalli on Monday
Amaravati: The Education department is designing an app specially to monitor the condition of toilets in schools and to give an update to the officials concerned on implementing special operational procedures.
The officials informed Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy about this initiative when he had asked them to ensure proper maintenance of toilets on top priority from February 1. The Chief Minister told the officials that poor maintenance of toilets was one of the reasons for fall in attendance in schools.
The Chief Minister also asked the officials to take initiative and use technology to monitor the attendance of students. He suggested that a special app be developed so that the attendance of students can be uploaded on it.
The teachers and parents will be able to check the attendance of the students. If some students do not attend the school, a message can be sent to their parents, he said.
Similarly, the services of volunteers could be utilised to send them to the houses of students who have been absent for more than a day or two to check their health condition. The welfare assistants in Village/Ward Secretariats should monitor this.
The Chief Minister wanted all these facilities to be in place at the earliest. He also asked the officials to examine the possibility of reopening of schools in the first week of February.
He further directed the officials to finalise all tenders related to Vidya Kanuka and ensure that the kits are delivered on time. He said to focus on teaching in English medium for seventh class students from the next academic year.
However, the problem at the ground level is that neither any school has separate staff for maintenance of toilets nor are they were given any special funds. Even if an app is developed, unless proper staff and funds are given, it would not be of much help, school authorities feel. They are also apprehensive about students coming to school as in past since Covid-19 fear is still there and parents are not willing to send their wards to schools.
The officials said a special mobile app has been designed to monitor the maintenance of toilets. Committees were setup on Toilet Maintenance Fund at State, District and School/ College level.