Tamil Nadu

Lack of facilities at suburban school in focus

Photo: K. Manikandan

Sorry state: Around the toilets at the Nehru Goverment Higher Secondary School in Nanganallur. —

TAMBARAM: In a situation that is typically found in many government educational institutions, the Nehru Government Boys Higher Secondary School in Nanganallur lacks basic facilities, a visit to the school showed. The lack of amenities for boys in classes VI to XII was a case in point.

The school lacks toilet facilities, for one: students routinely use the open spaces nearby. There is no toilet for the staff members either.

The Parent Teacher Association and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited built a toilet in 1998. But it has not been used for more than three years now. Though the structure is still intact, miscreants have damaged it in such a way that it cannot be used.

Students also complain of the quality of the drinking water available.

A few buildings in the southern corner are badly damaged and cannot be used.

Facilities at the laboratories are nowhere near those available in many private schools. Teachers said the school was founded in 1964 and once had 6,000 students, including girls. So, a separate higher secondary school for girls was started close by.

At present, there are only 1,035 boys as several private schools had mushroomed in the past decade. Students were initially accommodated in sheds that have now been abandoned. Later a two-storey building was built.

The abandoned sheds on the premises have become a den for miscreants who consume liquor there and litter the place.

The government should intervene and prevent miscreants from entering the premises and create adequate facilities for the students, the teachers demanded.

Senior officials of the Education Department said they were not aware of the problem as nobody had brought it to their notice. Renovation of existing facilities or construction of new ones would be arranged following a spot-visit, they added.

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