Playways to follow new guidelines

The state government has issued orders for playway school managements, which are to be adhered to strictly for these schools to be eligible to operate. If the managements fail to implement these orders, they could face closure, clarified the government.

The orders said these schools shall display all the details about buildings and the staff in the school. Dr Baljit Kaur, Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment, Punjab, while providing details about the fresh guidelines, said that the department would monitor these schools for strict adherence to the guidelines. According to the order at the time of admission, no screening tests shall be conducted; besides, there shall be no interview of the parents either. These schools shall not be allowed to serve junk food to students, and parents, too, shall not be allowed to send junk food in tiffins. She also urged parents to make sure schools were registered.

The teacher-student ratio in the playways shall be 1:20, and there must be a caretaker, too. The order states that the schools must have proper boundary walls, and rooms shall not be congested. Schools must have designated rooms on the premises where children can rest if they wish to sleep. The toilets for girls and boys should be separate. The school needs to install CCTV cameras on the premises for the safety of the students. No teacher should be allowed to put an unnecessary workload on the kids, and they should be made to understand concepts in a friendly manner. They should neither be scolded nor beaten by anyone at the schools. Fire safety, health check-ups, and library facilities should be made available to the students, said the new guidelines. The government further conveyed that only those schools that adhere to these instructions shall be allowed to operate.