Rain exposes bad condition of government schools in Vellore, nearby districts

Students were forced to sit in common classrooms owing to leaky roofs

An old school buildings at the Panchayat Union Middle School in Kannamangalam town near Arani in Tiruvannamalai being demolished on Wednesday due to rain. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Continuous rain since Tuesday morning has exposed the poor condition of government school buildings in Vellore, Ranipet, Tirupattur and Tiruvannamalai districts with leaky roofs and slippery floors forcing students, especially at primary level, to sit in common classrooms.

A total of 816 dilapidated school buildings in these districts were identified last December following the death of three students due to the collapse of a toilet wall in a government-aided school in Tirunelveli.

Ranipet has the highest number of 296 old government school buildings, followed by Tirupattur (265), Tiruvannmalai (143) and Vellore (112). However, officials said that many of these old classrooms were still being partially used or kept locked.

On Wednesday, revenue officials demolished three old buildings at the Panchayat Union Middle School in Kannamangalam after the headmistress of the school, K. Shanthi, cried at the gram sabha meeting held on the campus the previous day highlighting the bad condition of these buildings. The video of the incident went viral on social media. “Authorities woke up only after the headmistress of the school cried at the gram sabha meeting on the issue,” said Ms. Mahalakshmi Govardhan, president, Kannamangalam town panchayat.

Likewise, students at the Municipal Middle School in Arakkonam near Ranipet were shifted to a community hall a week ago after the floor of the common classroom got flooded due to leaky tiled roof. Since then, all 60 students had been attending classes in a community hall with temporary partitions. The premises had no toilets, water taps and other civic facilities, officials said.

Similar is the case with the Panchayat Union Primary school in Kittapalli village in Gudiyatham taluk near Vellore. Classes for I-III were discontinued after rainwater seeped into the tiled roofed classroom on Tuesday. They were accommodated in other classrooms of higher classes.

Officials said that procedural delays that involved various departments, lack of funds, especially with the School Education Department, were the reasons for delay in demolishing old school buildings and construct new ones in these districts.