From the next academic year onwards, sexual awareness sessions will be conducted for school students for a week, stated the Tamil Nadu School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi on Tuesday, May 3.
While speaking to IANS, the minister informed that in order to prevent sexual harassment cases in schools, extensive measures were taken by the state education department after the DMK government had assumed office. He also mentioned that to lodge complaints against sexual harassment in schools, the state education department has instructed all the schools (private, aided and government schools) to install mandatory complaint boxes for children, as per the IANS report.
Once every 15 days, the district education officer will appoint an officer of the state education department to check the complaint boxes.
Several accusations were filed against school teachers and headmasters for sexually assaulting school children. The founder of Sushil Hari International School, Shiv Shankar Baba, the self-styled godman, was arrested for sexually assaulting school students.
Several students, both former and currect, had raised allegations against Shiv Shankar Baba and as a result of these instances, the government has instructed all schools in the state to install complaint boxes where students can drop complaints against any sexual harassers.
The minister informed that the state school education department is also in the process of giving more emphasis on the scheme Illam Thedi Kalvi, which takes education to the doorstep. He also mentioned that the scheme benefitted 25.45 lakh government school students, 3.96 lakh aided school students and 60,000 private school students.
For the development of smart classes for the next five years, the state education department will invest Rs 7,000 crore. The budgeted allocation for education for 2022-23 has been increased to Rs 36,895 crore, a 7.9 per cent increase from the 2021-22 budgetary allocation of Rs 34,181 crore.
Minister Poyyamozhi stated that the state education department is concentrating more on executing the State Education Policy (SEP) and that a high-level committee of educationists and experts has been appointed to develop a SEP model.
