39 schools across country awarded Swachh Vidyalaya Puraskar for 2021-22

NEW DELHI, 19 Nov: Thirty-nine schools across the country have been awarded the Swachh Vidyalaya Puraskar for the 2021-22 academic session, the education ministry announced on Saturday.

The schools, selected from among the total 8.23 lakh entries, are 28 government and government-aided, while 11 are private.

The awarded schools include two Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas, one Navodaya Vidyalaya, and three Kendriya Vidyalayas.

The Swachh Vidyalaya Puraskar not only honours the schools that have taken up exemplary work in the field of water, sanitation and hygiene, but also provides a benchmark and a 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 and 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,” an education ministry official said.

The third edition of the award saw the participation of 9.59 lakh schools, around 1.5 times more than the number of schools (6.15 lakh schools) which participated in the SVP 2017-18.

Out of the 9.59 lakh schools, more than 8.23 lakh schools submitted their applications for SVP 2021-22. The evaluation process of 4,27,718 eligible schools was undertaken at district and state levels, out of which 606 schools at state and UT level awards were found eligible for national level awards.

The National Selection Committee for selection of schools for SVP 2021-22, in their meeting held on 10 October, 2022, selected 39 schools (34 in overall category and five in sub-categories) for national level awards for SVP 2021-2022, after the third party evaluation by UNICEF partner agency (NEERMAN).

MoS for Education Subhas Sarkar requested all schools to work hard in the field of cleanliness in schools to compete with the performance of award-winning schools, districts and states.

He also stressed that schools conferred with the national award may sustain the standard and rating of cleanliness and hygiene. (PTI)