Tamil Nadu - Tiruchi   

Corporation needs higher secondary schools

TIRUCHI: Twelve years have passed since Tiruchi was up-graded into a corporation; but there is not a single corporation higher secondary school in the city unlike in other corporations in Tamil Nadu.

Not that the city does not require corporation higher secondary schools; there has been no initiative all these years, according to academic observers.

In fact, presence of corporation higher secondary schools would ensure educational continuity for several hundreds of students, particularly girls, who drop out every year after the middle-school education due to poor socio-economic conditions. The presence of considerable number of Government-aided higher secondary schools does not matter much to this section of students whose families cannot afford the “hidden costs.”

As per official records, the existing 18 elementary schools, 11 middle schools and a lone high school of the Corporation continue to be referred to as municipality schools.

The Corporation’s role is restricted to maintenance of these schools and the Education Department has administrative control over the teaching and non-teaching staff.

Under normal circumstances, the maintenance as well as administration of such schools should be under the control of the Corporation and an Education Officer has to be appointed exclusively for the purpose.

Unfortunately, the absence of a long-term academic perspective has caused an irredeemable situation. Barring three middle schools – at Kamaraj Nagar near Airport, Subramaniapuram and Senthaneerpuram – the remaining schools cannot be up-graded in future due to paucity of space.

Of the three middle schools in spacious settings, the one at Subramaniapuram is yet to have the required strength while the other two schools at Kamaraj Nagar and Senthaneerpuram have already fulfilled the norm of public contribution of one lakh rupees for up-gradation.

However, the school at Kamaraj Nagar being on the fringe of the city, the utility of its upgradation into a high school would be immensely felt by several hundreds of students most of whose families subsist on daily wages. Every year, one third of the students passing out of this middle-school continue their education in an aided higher secondary school at nearby Sembattu and another one-third go to schools in the city. The rest, drop out of eighth standard, irrespective of their academic performance.

At the start of this academic year, the Tiruverumbur Panchayat Union Middle School at Melakalkandarkottai was up-graded into a high school, favouring city residents in and around Ariyamangalam.

The up-gradation of the municipal middle school at Kamaraj Nagar is expected to be next in line.

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