PMK founder Dr. S. Ramadoss on Monday expressed shock that though 8,228 old school buildings in 6,033 government schools have been deemed unfit for educational purposes, they have not been demolished and questioned why only ₹1,300 crore has been set aside under Professor Anbazhagan School Development Scheme to build school buildings that are being demolished.
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In a statement, he said that three students were killed last December because a wall of the toilet fell on them in a government aided school in Tirunelveli. “Chief Minister M.K. Stalin had ordered the demolition of old school buildings to prevent such unfortunate incidents. Despite 100 days having passed since the order, only 4,808 old buildings in over 3,482 schools have been demolished. The data says that 9,573 schools have over 13,036 buildings which have to be demolished. The order states that all buildings have to be demolished.”
Despite the order, Dr. Ramadoss said that only one-third of the old school buildings have been demolished. “With summer holidays scheduled to end on June 13, there is only 70 days remaining for the reopening of schools. I wonder if it is possible to demolish all these remaining buildings before that. And it would also be dangerous to temporarily use these buildings that cannot be demolished in time. To continue classes for students in these buildings that have been marked for demolition would be like playing with the lives of students,” he said.
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