Vijayawada: Private schools warned against removing orphaned students

Vijayawada: The State Education department has warned the private educational institutions against removing students who have lost parents due to Covid 19 for failure to pay the fee.

School Education department director V Chinaveerabhadrudu in a press release on Wednesday said the government would take action against the school managements, if the latter terminate the students for non-payment of fee. He said as per the details collected by the State Women and Child Welfare department about 6,800 children in the State lost their parents due to Covid. Among these children, the Women and Child Welfare department had collected the details of the 4,033 children. Out of them1,659 students are studying in the government schools and colleges in the State.

He said 2,150 students are studying in the private colleges and schools. The remaining 524 are infants. He said the national Child Protection Commission has also taken measures to safeguard the interests of the children, who lost their parents or both due to Covid-19. He said the Juvenile Justice Committee of Andhra Pradesh also reviewed the welfare of these children on August 8, 2021 along with the Departments of Education and Women and Child welfare.

Chinaveerabhadrudu said the Supreme Court also issued guidelines to the State to ensure that the children, who lost their parents due to Covid should continue the education.

He said the schools and colleges run by the State and central governments should distribute Jagananna Vidya kanuka kits to these children before August 31.

He said the private schools should take initiative to distribute the uniforms, textbooks and take to the notice of the Education department on the expenditure incurred on the students to get reimbursed. He said stringent action would be taken against the school managements, if they remove the students from the school.

He said all school managements must display the orders of the Education department on their notice board and conduct meeting with parents to furnish information about the orders.

He said the schools must inform to the mandal/divisional level officers about the problems of the children, who lost their parents due to Covid. He said the information related to the children can be send to balswarajap@gmail.com and Education department verify the mail and take measures on the issues related to the children.