NEW DELHI, Nov 19: Thirty-nine schools from across the country have been awarded the Swachh Vidyalaya Puraskar for the 2021-22 academic session, the Ministry of Education announced on Saturday.
The schools selected from among the 8.23 lakh entries include 28 government and aided while 11 are private schools. The awarded schools also include two Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas, one Navodaya Vidyalaya and three Kendriya Vidyalayas.
The Swachh Vidyalaya Puraskar not only honours the schools who have taken exemplary work in the field of water, sanitation and hygiene but also provides a benchmark and roadmap for schools to make further improvements.
For the award, schools are rated on six broad parameters of — Water, toilets, handwashing with soap, operation and maintenance, behavioural change, capacity building and COVID-19 (Preparedness and Response).
“Out of 39 schools, 17 are elementary and 22 are secondary/ higher secondary schools. Cash prizes of Rs 60,000 to 34 schools (in overall category) and Rs 20,000 (in sub-categories) were given to the awardee schools today,” a Ministry of Education Official said.
The third edition of the award, saw participation from 9.59 lakh schools, around 1.5 times more than the number of schools (6.15 lakh schools) which participated in SVP 2017-18. (Agencies)