A government school tucked away behind a leading convention centre is surrounded by thorny bushes and broken liquor bottles and is littered with garbage.
The tiles on the roof are broken; there is dust and litter all over.
The buildings are so bad that they look like an apology for a school.
Yet, it is good enough for siblings V. Malleswari and V. Stalin, who study at the Government Adi Dravidar Welfare Primary School in Thulasingapuram behind Chennai Trade Centre in Nandambakkam.
The school functions only for these two students, whose father Vinod Kumar is a daily wage earner and their mother Subbulakshmi is a maid. Their instructor is R. Thamizhselvi (29) and has studied till Class XII.
She teaches all the subjects in the syllabus prescribed for them.
The school, established in the 1930s, primarily to teach children of poor families engaged in manual labour in areas around St. Thomas Mount Cantonment area, once had 300 students.
Some years ago, the strength reduced to 25. There were 6 students before the flood last year and now, only Malleswari and Stalin remain.
“After the flood, parents of three students refused to send their children to the school. We do not know what happened to the fourth,” said Ms. Thamizhselvi, who earns Rs. 1,500 a month. Classes are held in one of the two school buildings.
“We open the classroom with caution. Once we swept a ‘nattuvaakkali’ (huge black scorpion) out of the classroom. We also found a moulted skin of a snake hanging from the wooden beam inside the classroom,” she said.
Most parents in Thulasingapuram were afraid to send their children here, she added.
In the next academic year, when Malleswari will leave the school to join a middle school elsewhere, Stalin will be the lone student here.
“Even if I am the only student, I will continue to study here. I like this school,” he said.
The two are the only students
left after
several others dropped out
