CHENNAI: Three out of the five government schools, built by the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board (TNSCB) for the relocated Perumbakkam residents, are yet to be taken over by the Education department. The school buildings have been locked for almost three years now and as a result, hundreds of relocated students either don’t have schooling or have to travel far away.
Latha, a resident, said her son, a class 7 student, travels two hours every day to reach his school in Chintadripet. “My son leaves at 6 am and boards the heavily crowded bus along with others. He returns home at 7 pm and sometimes even late,’’ she said.
Vasanth Kumar, a class 4 standard, said he travels 40 km up and down between Perumbakkam and Thousand Lights. He said the buses arranged by the TNSCB for students are overcrowded and even adults travel in the buses.
The TNSCB has identified about 350 students from around 1,000 families relocated in the past few weeks. Apart from this, several hundred students, who were relocated in the past two years, are yet to have a school.
TNSCB officials told Express that they had diligently built adequate schools ahead of newer relocations in 2016 itself. “The three schools - nursery, middle and primary - can easily accommodate upto thousand students together. If these schools function, the drop-out rate will become less,’’ said an official. The TNSCB has requested the Education department to take over the schools several times but only in vain. “Whenever we requested, they said there was a dearth of qualified staff and they had less funds to run the school,’’ said the official.
When Express visited Perumbakkam, many children said they would happily join the new government schools if they were opened soon.
As per the United Nations guidelines for eviction, competent state authorities must ensure that the evicted persons get all basic facilities including education. Though the new school buildings are yet to be functional, hundreds of children continue to be evicted to Perumbakkam.
Education department officials said that once the relocation was completed, a survey would be taken to identify the total number of students. “Currently some students are being admitted in the existing schools also. The department will soon decide when the new schools will be taken over,’’ said an official.