45 corporation schools have less than 50 kids

Times of India: Chennai: Thursday, 04 December 2014.

It's a daily struggle to make ends meet, but people with limited resources in the city are willing to forego the free education offered by the government and put their children in private institutions in the hope that it could change their destiny.

The half empty classrooms in most corporation schools in the city is a giveaway: Not able to provide students quality education, their enrolment rate is plunging.

In response to an RTI application filed by TOI, Corporation of Chennai said 45 of its 284 schools in the city have less than 50 students. Seven schools have less than 20 students.

Chennai Urdu Girls School in Saidapet has the fewest students - just three - and only one teacher. Its situation is only a little worse than Chennai Middle School, Gangapuram (six students), Chennai Primary School, Strahans Road (11), Chennai Middle School, Sivarajapuram (11), and Chennai Upper Primary School, Thousand Lights (12).

"We are trying our best to save the school but it is difficult," said Hafeez Unissa, headmistress and lone teacher of Chennai Urdu Girls School, Saidapet.

Educationalists say parents from poor families send their children to private schools for better, English-medium education. "The corporation is actually doing private schools a favour by neglecting its schools," former headmaster and child rights activist S S Rajagopalan said. "The government collects a large amount in education cess, which is meant for corporation schools, but most of it is not used for the purpose."

"Parents approach private English medium schools because of poor quality of corporation schools," RTI activist Ossie Fernandes said.

Officials said they technically cannot close corporation schools because education is a matter of policy. "But we plan to hand over a few of the schools to private educational trusts," an official said.

But the idea worries experts. "Many corporation schools are located in prime locations. If a company takes over a school, it will get the land free," said S Saravanan, member of Revolutionary Students and Youth Front (RSYF).

RSYF inspected 57 corporation schools after roof tiles fell on a Class 3 student in a school in Manali and found most schools had poor facilities and severe staff shortage.

The corporation has since 2009 merged as many as 31 schools with neighbouring schools because of poor enrolment.

The corporation allocated 14.50 crore for education in its budget of 3,629 crore for 2013-14 but spent only 34% of the funds. The corporation slashed its education spend by two-thirds, to 5 crore, out of a budget of 4,200 crore for 2014-15. It has so far spent only 1.69 crore of the finances alloted.