Many residents of Keelkattalai, Medavakkam, Madipakkam and other areas in the vicinity must be happy about the plans to upgrade the Pallavapuram Municipal Middle School to a high school. This institution has been around for 32 years and the lack of a playground is cited as the reason it has not attained high school status yet. According to the rule book. among the minimum requirements for a high school is a playground measuring one acre.
The school, which has 295 students, 100 of whom hailing from Kovilambakkam, Nanmangalam and Pallavaram, is said to have had a modest beginning. It was started in 1982 as a primary school and it took 22 years for the school to become what it is today. In 2004, it was upgraded to middle school under Sarva Siksha Abhyan (SSA) scheme. Now, the co-educational institution offers Tamil medium for classes 1 to 8 and English medium for classes 1 and 2.
A staff says, “The institution drew up a proposal to start English medium classes for the 6 standard. The proposal was rejected on the grounds that there were not enough classrooms.”
A few parents of children coming from adjoining areas think the need for more classrooms and a playground should be addressed.
V. Sarala, one of the parents, says two of the classrooms in the school became dilapidated and were later demolished and reconstructed. She says even the principal and the staff do not have separate rooms.
However, the Municipal Commissioner is clear that these considerations should not be allowed to scuttle the move to upgrade the institution to a high school. According to him, the Municipality is striving hard to effect this change in status. The nearby municipality land will be used as a playground for the children. We are constructing six rooms currently and plans are on to construct six more rooms and separate rooms will be provided for a library, audio-visual work, for the principal and for the staff room. Additional toilet facilities for children and staff will be created, he says.
Parents are said to happy with the quality and maintenance of the exiting toilets and the quality of good drinking water. They are however said to be unhappy about the condition of the school’s entrance, which is strewn with garbage and therefore makes it difficult for students to walk in easily. The Commissioner says there are plans to widen the Pallavaram-Keelkattalai Main Road (Big Street), on which the school is located, in such a way that the entrance of the school will be laid properly and students could enter the premises freely.
