Tamil Nadu: Take the jab, we’ll fund your kids’ higher education, say Karur school to parents

KARUR: While health authorities are luring the public to get vaccinated against Covid-19 by announcing fancy prizes including gold coins, a government primary school in Karur district has gone the extra mile by announcing that it would bear the higher education expenses of three children, if their parents get the jab. The students will be selected through a draw of lots.
Headmaster of the Panchayat Union Primary School (PUPS) in K Paramathi village, R Selvakannan, who has announced the initiative, said that this would help prevent students from dropping out after school and also encourage vaccination. The teachers will be funding the expenses towards tuition fees for enrolment into government colleges such as medical, engineering, agriculture and veterinary institutes.
The school, which has 210 students enrolled between classes I to V has six teachers, including the headmaster. For the past few weeks, the school has been serving as a vaccination centre. With a section of people around the village not vaccinated yet, the management announced that parents of school-going children in adjoining villages, who get vaccinated between October 1 and 17 can participate in a lucky draw. To enter the draw, a vaccination certificate must be provided as proof.
“On October 20, we will select three parents in our school campus in the presence of the local body and parent-teacher association members. An agreement will be signed immediately to assure funding the tuition fee of one child each of the three selected parents,” Selvakannan told TOI.
Even if some of the teachers are transferred during the course of time, the headmaster said that he will pool money to sustain the children’s education. The contest applies only to support the tuition fee of three students. All the parents who participate in the contest will be given stationery items as compensatory prizes since schools are to open from the next month.