Corporation schools in bad shape, but funds remain unused.

The Times of India: Chennai: Wednesday, May 30, 2012.

The Corporation of Chennai's education department has failed to use a majority of the funds received through the education tax, a reply received to a query under the RTI Act by TOI shows. Of the Rs 4.4 crore collected by the civic body under the education tax, just about Rs 3.1 crore was spent for the purpose it was meant since 2004. Separately, 31 corporation schools were closed since 2009 due to a lack of students.

A senior corporation official said most of the funds remained unused because of various reasons. "There is no clear strategy or plan about utilizing funds. There is little coordination among various departments in the civic body on this," he said.

Statistics also show that there has been an improvement in the utilization of general funds. The corporation had utilized Rs 24.42 lakh (49.73%) of the funds in 2004-05 and Rs 68 lakh (76.89%) in 2010-11.

While some sources in the civic body said that 31 corporation schools had been closed since 2009 due to lack of students, T N Venkatesh, joint commissioner (education), said no school was closed. "Those 31 schools were merged with neighbouring schools because of poor attendance," he said.

Venkatesh also said they were trying their best to improve the quality of education. "We have been using the funds for improving the quality of education. We will take necessary steps for utilizing these funds in future. We are facing a drop in number students in primary classes but there are enough students in the +2 classes," he said.

Some parents complain about the lack of infrastructure and the poor quality of education in many corporation schools. "There are no facilities in many schools. The quality of education is also poor as there is no English medium. It is difficult to get a job without knowing English. So I have sent my child to a private school," said N Narayanan, a fisherman from Doming Street in Santhome.

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India's report for the year ended March 2010, which was released recently, had slammed the corporation for the lack of fire safety measures, poor sanitation facilities, absence of playgrounds and shortage of teachers. It also pointed to instances of roof collapse, electric shocks due to damaged wiring and lack of water facilities and restrooms in schools.