Schoolchildren attend classes in staircase as new building awaits inauguration in Trichy

TRICHY: The city corporation continues to delay the opening of new building housing additional classrooms for over three months in the Corporation High school at Senthaneerpuram.
Due to the existing space crunch, teachers are taking classes in open ground and even in staircases, putting students into hardship. But the civic body is waiting for an auspicious day to inaugurate the building by chief minister Jayalalithaa through video conference.
At a time when poor quality of education and infrastructure were cited as reasons for low student strength in government schools in recent years, the pathetic condition of the Senthaneerpuram school will certainly dent the civic body’s image.
The two-storey building has four classrooms and two staffrooms in each floor. While the elementary students occupy the ground floor, high school students are accommodated in the first floor.
The administration of schools in the corporation limit is under the school education department. The city corporation is vested with the responsibility of providing basic infrastructure to the schools.
As the increasing student strength of the high school could not be accommodated in the first floor, at least two of the classes are made to sit in the staircases and playground.
The existing four rooms in the first floor are not only used as classrooms for classes 6 to 10 but also as laboratories.
The construction work for the new building was started three years ago. The work was completed three months ago and the corporation had spent Rs 51 lakh to bring up the new structure. But it has remained closed since then as officials are awaiting its opening by the chief minister.
“The building was used as a storeroom by revenue officials for keeping freebies till a few days ago. But officials are not allowing teachers to take class in the new building. This has angered parents as well,” said R Elango, Trichy district secretary, Makkal Sakthi Iyakkam, a social reformation organization which petitioned the district collector over the issue.
“Even chief minister J Jayalalithaa will not entertain such things if she comes to know that children are put to hardship despite spending lakhs of money for the infrastructure,” said a senior teacher in the school.
“We requested corporation commissioner M Vijayalakshmi to open at least two classes when she visited our school a few days ago. But she expressed her inability to open the classes before it is officially inaugurated by the CM,” the teacher said. The city corporation officials were unavailable for comments.