Thiruvananthapuram: The draft school manual published recently by the Kerala General Education Department has proposed a host of measures including those for improving amenities, promoting reading habit, the norms for promotion and class strength.
As per the manual all schools should have enough toilets corresponding to the number of students. Education officers should consider increasing the number of toilets while determining the number of posts.
Besides, it has been suggested that there should be separate waiting sheds for girls, in co–education schools from the upper-primary classes onwards.
Other recommendations:
In public schools, lack of attendance shouldn’t be a reason to bar a student from attending exams or promoting to the next class, until standard eight. All students should be promoted to higher classes until class eight. Meanwhile, in class nine, the promotion will be based on the annual exam. The schools can conduct ‘Save an Year’ exams for those who do not pass this exam.
Until class five, there should only be 30 students in a division. Meanwhile, up to 35 students could be admitted in classes 6, 7 and 8. However, in classes 9 and 10, up to 50 students could be admitted in a division. In case there are more students, then additional batches with 45 students in each division could be allowed.
At least one division of every class should be Malayalam medium. Meanwhile, there should at least be 30 students to begin English medium classes. There could be two divisions if there are 60 students.
No child should be denied admission just because they haven’t submitted the Transfer Certificate. In such cases, the head master should inform the institution where the student had studied before. The head master of that school should then send the TC via the Sampoorna portal. Strict action would be taken against the head masters who do not comply to these rules.
Differently abled students could be admitted to schools until 18 years.
Every school should publish the time slots allowed for each class to use the library. Spaces should be arranged for the students to sit and read news papers and other publications.
The school assembly shouldn’t last more than 15 minutes.