The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Semmanchery colony residents want high school

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 18, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Semmanchery colony residents want high school

Staff Reporter

Slum Board colony students go to Sholinganallur for studies

TAMBARAM: The residents of the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB) colony at Semmanchery, near Sholinganallur, have a simple demand: a high school in their locality.

Though slum dwellers began moving into their new houses here more than a year ago, it was not until this year that the middle school began functioning. Officials said there were about 800 school-going children in the colony. About half of them were in high school and above. Along with the tenements, the TNSCB also constructed a school building with 10 classrooms for developing it as a high school with classes up to the 10th standard.

But only a middle school functions there, and classes are held till the eighth standard. Though the Board built another block nearby with five classrooms, parents said there was no indication of classes commencing there for the high school children, let alone for those in the 11th and 12th standards.

The absence of a high school in Semmanchery has put severe stress on the Government Higher Secondary School at Sholinganallur, about 4 km away. On an average, the school takes in 200 new students a year from the middle school level onwards, but this year the number of admissions is around 500.

As a result, around 85 students are cramped in each section in the sixth, seventh and eighth standards, more than double the stipulated average of 40.

Officials said that despite the shortage of facilities and teachers, they could not refuse admission to poor children.

They said the Elementary Education Department of the Kancheepuram district administration had taken over the middle school from June 15. Plans were on to upgrade the middle school to a high school so that classes could be held till the 10th standard. They would explore the possibilities of converting the other unused building as a higher secondary school depending on the requirements, officials added.

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