The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : An apology for a students’ playground in school

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 17, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

An apology for a students’ playground in school

V. Venkatasubramanian

The school ground has been a venue for government and private functions or meetings

— Photo: A. Muralitharan

NOT SERVING THE PURPOSE: The playground of Dr. P.S.S. Municipal Higher Secondary School in Kancheepuram.

KANCHEEPURAM: The spacious area, encompassed by buildings on three sides and a compound wall on the fourth side, at Dr. P. S. S. Municipal Higher Secondary School here seems to serve more as an open-air stadium for conducting public and private meetings rather than as a full-fledged playground for students.

While an old cement-roofed auditorium in the southwest corner stands as a testimony that the ground is being used as an open-air stadium, no trace of evidences is there to indicate that it functions as a playground.

Enquiries reveal that the ground has served as an ideal place for conducting government functions and meetings, private functions, exhibitions, and fund-raising events such as dramas, musical nights etc. Famous singers and stage artists have presented their performances in this auditorium and politicians have attended meetings held on the school premises.

After the construction of Anna Arangam in front of the municipal office on Nellukara Street, and of Annai Anjugam Hall near the district sports stadium complex on Railway Road, the number of government or private programmes held in the school reduced drastically. However, permissions are given once in a while for conduct of religion-based programmes on this playground, sources said.

When contacted, a senior civic official said that he too was not in favour of renting out the playground for purposes other than sports meetings by educational institutions. Surprisingly, neither the parents-teachers association nor the school authorities seem to initiate any move to put the play area to the best use.

Ironically, sources in the civic body have claimed enough funds, collected by way of educational cess, are available in the municipality to convert the play area into a full-fledged playground.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu