Date:09/01/2009 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/01/09/stories/2009010952550200.htm

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Students support ‘samacheer kalvi’

Staff Reporter

CHENNAI: Over 450 students from four matriculation and state-board schools, through their nimble strokes, expressed their support for equitable standard education (ESE) at Memorial Hall here on Wednesday. With colour-stained fingers and school bags slung over their shoulders, the students held placards with messages such as ‘Introduce common school system to unite the student community’ and ‘ESE makes education affordable,’ as they joined a string of painters to protest against the existing system.

Artists ‘Sirpi’ Dakshinamoorthy, ‘Sigaram’ S. Senthilnathan and Muthusamy from Koothu-p-pattarai made deft strokes on six canvases spread across 10 metres. Principal of the Government College of Fine Arts G. Chandrasekaran pencilled in the first painting.

The children expressed their ideas through paintings on the canvas, in support of the common school system.