Kerala   

Villagers fend for themselves

Collective effort: A. Soosai, Headmaster of Government High School Marunthanthalai, handing over the documents to Chief Educational Officer S. Chellam at Pudukottai.

PUDUKOTTAI: Realising the dire need for constructing additional classrooms for the Government High School at Marunthanthalai near here, the residents and the village panchayat have contributed their mite to purchase a piece of private land adjoining the school campus.

Poor classroom facility at the school, which has a strength of 298 students including girls, forced the school authorities to utilise the available space optimally. They set up an asbestos roof to accommodate students of two classes, while another class is being held under the trees.

The villagers, led by the president of the Parent-Teacher Association, B. T. Kumar, acted swiftly when the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development sanctioned funds for constructing 10 classrooms for the school. In fact, the scheme could not be implemented for quite some time, for want of a site.

The guideline value for the piece of land, measuring about half-an-acre, was about Rs. 50,000. While Mr. Kumar contributed Rs.30,000, the teachers contributed Rs.5,000, the local villagers and the Marunthanthalai Panampatti village panchayat contributed the rest. The president of the Village Education Committee, S. Malayappan, also motivated the villagers to contribute their mite for the noble cause.

The land was acquired within the shortest time, thanks to the cooperation of villagers, says one of the teachers, N. Sivakumar. For, the villagers were fully aware of the quality education being imparted at the school to the students. “The school has been registering at least 90 per cent of pass percentage in the SSLC public examinations,” says Mr. Soosai. He handed over the documents to the Chief Educational Officer, S. Chellam, at Pudukootai recently.

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