MARGAO
Union Minister for Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar on Tuesday conferred the National Swachh Vidyalaya Puraskar 2018 awards to The King’s School and 51 other schools from India, selected from among 6.5 lakh, including over 45,000 private schools, at an event held at the Ambedkar International Centre in the national capital, as part of the ‘Swachhata Hi Seva’ campaign launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The King’s School located at Sao Jose de Areal, Salcete is only the second school to bag the National Swachh Vidyalaya Puraskar from the State of Goa which earlier was among the twelve shortlisted for the National Swachh Vidyalaya Puraskar from the State.
Headmaster Wilson Verghese received this award on behalf of The King’s School along with a TKS student Riya Sharma received the award at New Delhi.
The School Chairman Melvin Pereira and Director Ligia Pereira have commended the students, parents, ground staff, support staff, sports coaches, doctor, nurse, security guards, teachers, supervisors, coordinators, headmaster and principal involved in maintaining a clean and sanitised environment at the school campus located at Sao Jose de Areal, Salcete.
Addressing the event, Javadekar said that cleanliness had now become a movement in which schools and students were playing a crucial role. Swachh Bharat Swachh Vidyalaya (SBSV) initiative was launched by the HRD Ministry in 2014 to ensure that all the schools in the country had access to separate functional toilets for boys and girls. Of the 52 awardee schools, 37 schools are from rural areas, 15 from urban areas, 45 are government/government aided schools and 7 are private schools.
The national awards for clean schools were based on a self-appraisal system, in which five parameters-drinking water, toilets, capacity building, behavioural change and washing hands, were evaluated.
The King’s School (TKS) earlier was awarded the Swachh Vidyalaya Puraskar 2017 at the State level on August 21, 2018 at the hands of Secretary of Education Nila Mohan (IAS).
