Vijayawada: Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday directed officials to accord top priority to clean toilets in schools and said students would otherwise be discouraged to come in for classes.The CM reviewed this matter as also the Nadu-Nadu and other schemes with education minister Adimulapu Suresh and senior officials here.

The CM underlined the importance for hygiene in schools.

Officials must oversee all requisite repair works including plumbing and sanitation.

Companies with requisite experience and expertise in proper maintenance of toilets must be roped in.

Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for maintenance of school toilets must be in place. Officials informed the CM that a special mobile app has been designed to monitor maintenance of school toilets.

Committees were also set up at state, district, school and college levels for the purpose.The CM was informed by officials that a special mobile app has been developed to monitor the attendance of students in schools.

The record would be uploaded on the app every day to enable both teachers and parents have a regular check.

The CM asked officials to ensure a system of messaging parents in case the wards failed to turn up at school.

Volunteers may be assigned the task of finding out the health condition of students if they failed to reach school. Jagan said officials must take a decision on reopening of schools from the first half of February and on conducting the classes.

Officials were also told to finalise tenders for Vidya Kanuka to ensure prompt delivery of kits.