TN Education department releases guidelines to prevent children from becoming vulnerable to dog bites
As per the recent notification released by the department, the guidelines have been sent to all schools in the State, calling for immediate implementation of the same.
School education department
CHENNAI: To avoid and mitigate incidents of dog bites among students across the State, the Department of School Education has urged all schools to follow a set of guidelines and appoint a nodal officer to prevent such cases.
As per the recent notification released by the department, the guidelines have been sent to all schools in the State, calling for immediate implementation of the same.
In the recent past, several cases of dog bites have been reported across the State and in most cases, children became the target. Though such cases expose the lack of animal control measures by the municipal and corporation officials, the mitigation is still a need of the hour.
Some of the guidelines stressed by the school education department include advice on regular vaccination of pet dogs for parents during teacher meetings, posting awareness banners regarding the threat of dog bites on the school's notice board and creating awareness during the morning assembly.
Pointing out that students should be encouraged to report cases of dog bites, the department insisted, "Teachers and school management should immediately inform the prevalence of street dogs to relevant local government officials."
It added that students should be given the necessary instructions to avoid playing with or feeding dogs on the street, and importantly, they should be made aware of the rabies infection and vaccination.
Additionally, school principals should appoint a nodal officer to supervise the maintenance, cleanliness and prevention of stray dogs from entering or residing in the school premises, it noted. "The details of the above should be made public on the notice board, and the details of the concerned officer should be communicated to the local body," urged the department.
Meanwhile, till September, the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has administered rabies vaccinations to over 53,000 dogs in the street and aims at vaccinating more than a lakh dogs living in the street.