Staff Reporter
Guwahati: The Samagra Shiksha, Assam (SSA) has instructed the officials concerned to ensure that vendors use only virgin thread cloth for preparing the school uniforms meant for students in the elementary level.
In a letter addressed to all Additional District Commissioners, District Elementary Education Officers, District Mission Coordinators, and Inspectors of Schools, the Mission Director, Samagra Shiksha, Assam, stated that the procurement and distribution of free school uniforms for the learners of the elementary level of government and provincialized schools for the financial year 2024-25 have to be completed by the concerned School Management Committees (SMCs) and School Management and Development Committees (SMDCs) by February 28, 2025.
It is at this stage that it has come to the notice of SSA that few suppliers are planning to supply uniforms, especially T-shirts made from recycled fibre, which the department said is not as per the intention of the guidelines issued earlier. Hence, it was informed that all SMCs and SMDCs should compulsorily procure school uniforms made from virgin thread cloth instead of recycled thread for the students at the elementary level.
Moreover, the officials addressed in the letter have been requested to instruct the SMCs and SMDCs to ensure that only cloth made of virgin thread is used in the supply of school uniforms at the elementary level. It issues a warning that if any deviation regarding the use of virgin thread is detected during the lab test of the school uniform, the work order of the particular vendor will be treated as cancelled, no payment will be made against such a lot of uniforms, and the vendor will be debarred from providing school uniforms in the future. The officials have been instructed to conduct close monitoring in this regard so that the quality of uniforms can be ensured in all schools.
School uniforms are to be provided to all students from Class I to VIII of government and provincialized lower primary (LP), upper primary (UP), and composite schools. Each child is to be provided two pairs of good-quality uniforms within the Government of India ceiling rate of Rs 600.
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