Tilak, garlands & sweets: Students back to school

Noida: Students at several govt primary schools received a warm welcome from their teachers and officials as they returned from an extended summer break on Monday.
In a first for the district, the chief development officer along with officials from several departments — including social welfare, women and child development — welcomed students back to school with tilak, garlands, flowers, sweets, balloons, rangolis and other cultural programmes.
The programme, which was held in 511 schools in the district, was a part of the state initiative to increase enrolment rate and attendance at govt primary schools. The welcome ceremony was also blended with the School Chalo Abhiyaan. A total of 61 district/block level officers, district coordinators, diet mentors, SRGs and ARPs took part in the programme.
The district magistrate attended the welcome ceremony, at Composite Vidyalaya, Sector 12 in Vikas Khand, Bisrakh. He conducted a tree plantation programmed as part of the event.
Rani Kumari, a class 3 girl from primary school in Dadri, told TOI, “It was a different day at school. We thought the rigorous school schedule would start from Monday, but it took all of us to surprise how welcomed we were.”
At the event on Monday, the DM made an appeal to enroll 100% children in council schools and send them to school regularly.
“The move is welcoming as it will encourage students to come to school and they will feel important. This is the first time that officials and the DM have come to welcome students at school after summer break. Students were very happy,” said Praveen Sharma, principal of a primary school in Tugalpur.
In Dec last year, the GB Nagar basic education officer sent show-cause notices to at least 40 govt primary schools whose attendance was less than 50% in Nov of that year.