New-look uniforms for school students

Materials have been sourced from Anglo French Textiles; exclusive bus for girls

Chief Minister N. Rangasamy launching the new sets of uniform for government school students for the academic year 2014-2015 in Puducherry on Tuesday. Photo: S.S. Kumar

For years, the white shirt and grey or blue trousers have been a staple for Puducherry government school students. This year, though, students can look forward to a set of uniforms with new colours.

Boys from class I to class V will have yellow shirts with light green stripes and grey trousers, while girls will get yellow shirts with light green stripes and grey skirts. Boys from class VI to class XII will wear blue shirts with yellow stripes and blue trousers. Girls will be donning blue kurtas with yellow stripes and blue churidhars.

The uniforms have been sourced from Anglo French Textiles, which will be worn by over 1 lakh school students. There are 435 schools under the administrative control of the Directorate of School Education.

The new uniforms, formally launched on Tuesday by Chief Minister N. Rangasamy, are not the only novelty this year as for the first time girls get an exclusive bus.

Routes to be reorganised

Bidding adieu to “co-ed buses,’ school buses will run separate services for boys and girls on 55 routes in Puducherry and 15 routes in Karaikal. Each route will have separate buses. “The routes have been reorganised. Earlier, we had certain issues regarding routes. They did not cover all the areas. This time around, we have made sure no area is left out. Buses will ply to and from the town area and rural areas,” said E. Vallavan, director, Directorate of School Education.

The Education Department had constituted 10 committees to look into the routes and study how many students used the buses.

“Around 20,000 students use the 55 routes,” added Vallavan. Apart from this, a monitoring cell will be finalised soon which will look into aspects like overcrowding, punctuality and maintenance of buses. Qualifications of drivers, conductors and cleaners will also be looked into. “The special buses for girl students will have one female cleaner each. This will be implemented within the next 10 days,” said Vallavan.

The school buses are run by private operators in Puducherry with a five-year licence. Buses were undergoing fitness inspection last week to get them on the roads on time for reopening day on June 4.