the goan I network
PANAJI
The Directorate of Education (DoE) has directed all schools and higher secondaries in the State to give students two water breaks to ensure that all students mandatorily drink water during school hours.
In a circular issued by deputy director of education Shailesh Zingde, Zingde stated that the circular has been issued since a lot of students are getting dehydrated.
As such, it has been made compulsory for schools to give students two minute water breaks after the second and sixth period, everyday.
“In every school, there shall be water breaks of two minutes each after the second period and sixth period indicated by ringing a short bell,” Zingde said.
The rule applies to all government, government-aided, unaided, primary, middle, secondary, higher secondary and special schools with immediate effect.
Mandatory water breaks are already being followed in South Indian schools in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Telangana.
The education department’s circular follows a recent trend by several states to introduce water breaks in schools, after it was feared that children might develop health issues due to inadequate intake of water.
According to figures, there are around 210,000 students in Goa enrolled in about 1160 primary schools, 60 middle schools, 420 high schools and 105 Higher Secondary School who will be covered under this circular.
According to media reports, Kerala was the first state to introduce the concept of water breaks in schools across that state.
Jenil John, a Physical Education teacher at St Joseph’s Upper Primary School, located in Irinjalakuda-Kerala, was reportedly the first to come up with the idea of introducing the water bell almost two years ago.
Following Kerala, other states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Odisha and Telangana have also implementing the water bell concept in their schools and have encouraged teachers to ensure that children take water without fail during these breaks.
Puducherry was recently added to this list when the Puducherry government on Monday also introduced “water breaks” in all schools in the union territory.
In many cases, it was found out that many children who took water bottles with them to school would rarely drink the entire bottle of water.
According to reports, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has guidelines about how much fluid children need. As a general rule of thumb, children aged between 4 and 13 should aim to drink approximately 6-8 glasses of fluid a day.
