Government Schools in Tamilnadu

Schools for Cattle, Castles in the Air

Statement by KALVI, an Alliance for Education, and other concerned Citizens


More than a year after the Kumbakonam fire tragedy in which scores of children died in their classrooms, the report titled Schools here are home to Cattle and Gamblersin the Hindu dated 1 January, 2006, makes nightmarish reading. The report says that in Mathur panchayat in north Chennai , only seven out of 19 government schools are functioning, and cattle wander around inside school buildings, gamblers make merry, attempts are made to convert schools by night into brothels, and obscenities are scrawled on walls. That government schools on public land have been put up for auction, and government property is being sold off under the noses of taxpayers, points to an unspoken decision to disband publicly funded schooling and to promote commercialised education. It should cause shame and anguish in a country which is dreaming of becoming a 'knowledge society', and in a city which is boasting not only of its high culture, but also of its potential to become an info tech paradise.

Surely it is no secret that government funded schools suffer from severe shortages of trained, full time teachers, decent buildings and facilities, and that they offer a wretched learning ambience for children, and a depressing working environment for teachers and staff. While most of the poor, now hungry to educate their children, are being driven to private schools (many of which are frankly commercial in approach and often mediocre in quality), the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan offers cheap interventions in government schooling (like a stipend of Rs. 500 for an 'extra' teacher, usually part-time, unsupervised, and untrained, and the 'maatru palli' or 'schools with a difference!', the preposterous Alternative Innovative Education centre in each formal school, where out of school children of all ages and stages are herded together without proper teaching going on). These gimmicks are an insult to the intelligence of the Indian public, which has now woken up to the need for good schooling, and knows that education is a fundamental constitutional right. The so called fund crunch is an unacceptable excuse when it comes to giving all our children the education they deserve and require, as future citizens.

We call upon the Government of Tamil Nadu to reprioritise its education policy in favour of the poor and strengthen the public school system, where the overwhelming majority of our children study. We appeal to everyone to raise her / his voice to ensure the fundamental right to free and equal quality of education to all children.

Sincerely,

1. Vasantha Surya,
2. V.Vasanthi Devi, former Vice-Chancellor
3. VS Gopalakrishnan, IAS, former
Director of the World Trade Centre, Mumbai.
4. Revathy Gopal
5. R.Ramanujam, Matscience
6. Anil Sadgopal, former Dean, Faculty of Education, Delhi University and currently Member, CABE, Bhopal
7. K. Ramakrishnan, Visiting Professor, North Eastern Hill University, Shillong, India