The Telangana State Education Department took an initiative to educate students about mosquito borne illnesses across Telangana.
The State Education Department, on the 18th of November, issued a notice which read, “Owing to illnesses and deaths caused by mosquitoes of late, Mosquito Prevention Day or ‘Dry Day’ will be observed for the next 10 Fridays in schools starting from the 22nd of November, as decided by the education department secretary. All schools are requested to clean places prone to attract mosquitoes, such as stacks of papers, coolers, plants, dust bins, and water tanks. Stagnation of water must be avoided.”
According to the new initiative, to observe ‘Dry Day’ or ‘Mosquito Prevention Day,’ the students of government schools would spend 15 minutes every Friday cleaning the premises. They would also be taught about ways to keep the areas dry and clean to prevent the breeding of mosquitoes.
During these 15 minute sessions, the pupils would also learn about ways to prevent dengue, malaria and other mosquito borne diseases.
B. Janardhan Reddy, the Secretary of the Telangana Education Department, said, “These diseases are seeing a drastic rise. Reducing mosquito populations would be a big step towards preventing such diseases.”
Mr. Janardhan also emphasised on the need for teaching children methods to control mosquito breeding, stating they would spread awareness to a large part of the population in the State.
Seshu Kumari, the Secretary of the Director of the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT,) said, “Earlier, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) had introduced a questionnaire on its app to assess people’s awareness of such preventive measures. This helped us understand that we needed to focus on controlling the mosquito population. By introducing this programme in schools, we hope it will help in the efforts to tackle vector borne illnesses.”
The initiative was taken due to the increasing number of deaths caused by diseases like dengue and malaria. Approximately 5,000 people died due to dengue in the past 10 months.
The ‘Mosquito Prevention Day’ programme is scheduled to begin from the 22nd of November and would take place for the next 10 Fridays, till the 24th of January 2020.
Stay tuned for further updates.
