Towards a breath of fresh air at Chennai Corporation schools

Even as the Corporation makes plans to start more kindergarten and English medium sections in its schools, it is grappling with acute shortage of space and infrastructural facilities in its more crowded institutions. Corporation officials admit that space has been issue and even what is available is often tough to utilise.

“Some of our schools that have less than 100 students sometimes tend to have more space than the ones that have more than 1,000 students,” says a senior Corporation official. “We can’t really shuffle students as they are neighbourhood schools,” the official adds.

Take the Chennai Higher Secondary School, Velachery. Despite having a combined strength of 2,073 in the primary, middle and high school sections, the school lacks a playground. One of its students has even qualified to represent the State for javelin at a national sports meet, but he has to practise at Anna University. “We have identified some land nearby belonging to PWD. We will now explore if land transfer can be made, so that we can extend the school premises,” the official said.

Officials say that this year, they are concentrating on finding ways to increase space for crowded schools. “Classes VII and VIII of the school at Washermanpet have been shifted to a neighbouring Corporation school. We are demolishing the building and erecting extra floors as it is very crowded at the moment,” an official said.

A two-pronged approach would be taken up to mitigate the space crunch, officials say.

“We will either be concentrating efforts to use surrounding land belonging to us or other government departments, or increase vertically, by introducing more floors in existing buildings,” the official said.

Chennai H.S.S, Koyambedu will be revamped as well, as some of the 1,700 students study under a temporary shed for lack of space. The middle school at MGR Nagar-2 which has 1,000 students is facing similar space issues, while Kolathur H.S., hosting 1,600 students will be modified to accommodate the strength, the official said.