Students painting a portion of the walls of a block of the building at the Government Girls’ Higher Secondary School, Sulur, has created a controversy.
School sources alleged that around 25 Class IX and X students were painting the lower portion of the outer wall of the block that housed their classrooms. The students carried buckets to the school for the purpose.
The students, who started the work around 3 p.m., had finished the work by 4.20 p.m. after painting 12 classrooms in the block. And they did so under the supervision of Head Mistress G. Jayanthi. The sources also alleged that none of the teachers was involved in the work.
The school has around 1,000 students in classes VI – XII.
The Head Mistress said that the students did paint the walls. The students, who were members of the National Service Scheme, painted the lower portion of the walls as part of the tidying work. The walls were full of graffiti and were dirty.
There was an impending visit of higher officials to the school, said Ms. Jayanthi adding that she had only employed those students who had already carried out such work prior to the conduct of the school annual day.
The students volunteered to do the work and they did so sporting NSS bands. And the work they had done on Tuesday evening would form part of the school’s NSS activities. In fact, after the Class IX and X students painted the exterior of their classrooms, the class VI and VII students came forward to do the same. They said that they too wanted their classrooms to look new.
She went on to ask what was wrong in the NSS volunteer-students painting the school when they were doing the very work at temples and schools during their NSS camps.
Ms. Jayanthi said that she had paid for the paint from her purse and dismissed allegations that the students were “used.”
