Concern over attendance
The Hindu
Minimum 75% requirement for students to claim Amma Vodi benefits evokes mixed response, with apprehensions being raised over COVID risks
The State government, a month ago, made 75% attendance at school mandatory for students to get the benefits of Amma Vodi scheme and November 8 was set as the cut-off date from when the attendance percentage will be calculated. Things were, apparently, going on at a smooth pace until Omicron, a new variant of COVID-19, hit the headlines. Now, the safety of children has become a serious concern.
There are apprehensions that the State government is not following the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) issued by the Central government in the opening of schools. The officials, however, maintain that there is no need to press the panic button “as no cases of Omicron” and very few cases of COVID-19 are being reported in the State.
According to information, the Amma Vodi scheme has been made available to almost 44.50 lakh mothers for sending their children to school. The objective is to address school dropout rate and child labour. The government has been spending more than ₹6,600 crore per annum on the scheme. Though it was announced in January 2020, owing to the COVID-19 outbreak in March 2020, it was in November 2020 that implementation of the scheme was resumed. Later, the pandemic second wave kept the schools shut. With the ‘near flattening of the COVID curve’ now, the government wants to ensure that children attend the offline classes to achieve the objectives of the scheme.