The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : ‘Upgrade Tirupur Corporation schools’

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Wednesday, Jul 02, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

‘Upgrade Tirupur Corporation schools’

K.V. Prasad

Palaniammal Girls’ Higher Secondary School accommodates 100 students in each classroom

Photo: M. Balaji

Modern day Gurukul: With the construction of additional classrooms yet to materialise, classes are taken under a tree at V.K. Government Higher Secondary School in Chettipalayam panchayat near Tirupur. –

TIRUPUR: Overcrowding of classrooms of Tirupur Corporation schools and the resultant hardship caused to students triggered protest from councillors at the Corporation Council’s meeting on Monday. They demanded immediate steps from the Corporation to upgrade schools, so that student strength could be spread evenly across the institutions.

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam member L.M. Masood raised the problems students faced at the Palaniammal Girls’ Higher Secondary School. The councillor was upset at 100 students being accommodated in every class room, especially at the higher secondary level.

“This is primarily because of no effort to build additional classrooms,” the councillor alleged. While the school required 80 classrooms to accommodate 4,057 students, it had only 34 classes. He wanted to know what the Corporation was doing with Rs. 2 crore that the Government had sanctioned for improvements to the school.

Tenders

Municipal Engineer K. Gouthaman replied that tenders had been received for works at the school. But, these were with the office of the Commissioner of Municipal Administration for technical scrutiny.

Deputy Mayor K. Senthilkumar, who chaired the meeting in the absence of Mayor K. Selvaraj, said the Corporation was seized of the problem and it was doing its best to provide a solution.

Leader of the Opposition and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam member C. Sivasamy wanted to know why the Corporation had not taken efforts to increase the number of classrooms when that of the students was rising.

The Corporation should pass a resolution to upgrade its middle schools to high schools and the high schools to higher secondary schools, he demanded.

The former legislator from Tirupur recalled the efforts made to upgrade schools during the AIADMK regime. “Children of thousands of knitwear unit workers can study only in Corporation schools. They too need good education. The present situation calls for the conduct of an emergency meeting to discuss the immediate need for upgrading the schools,” he said.

He explained that when high schools and higher secondary schools are too less compared to the student strength, it leads to the packing of small classrooms with too many students.

“Students in the last row can neither hear what the teacher says nor see what is written on the board. This affects their education,” Mr. Masood said, calling for quick measures to end the students’ plight.

Mr. Gauthaman said the problems and a solution would be discussed at a meeting with the Commissioner of Municipal Administration that was slated for Tuesday.

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