The Rotary Club, as a part of its community development services, has provided new amenities, including classrooms and toilets, at the Pallikaranai Government Higher Secondary School. Around 2,500 students of the school are to benefit from the new facilities. The project was inaugurated by district (3230) governor V Raja Sreenivasan on June 12, with the principal of the school expressing gratitude to the club for the initiave. The foundation for the project, which was planned in the Rotary year 2012-2013, was laid in January this year.
The project comes as a relief to students, especially girls, who earlier had to relieve themselves in the open or in dilapidated toilets.
According to records, there are 1,100 girl students and it is believed that a proper toilet facility is a vital factor in determining a girl student’s continuance.
Earlier, classes used to be conducted under trees for the students as the classrooms were not large enough to accommodate all of them. The girls’ toilet block was funded through matching grant with District 3230 and the boys’ toilet with the winners project surplus funds. While the toilet block for boys was taken up at a cost of `.23.35 lakh with support from the Trust for Vocational Training, the one for girls came up for `19.98 lakh with matching grant from Rotary Foundation and Uttara Subang Jaya, Malaysia.
A borewell and a overhead tank to supply water to toilets were also provided with support from the Trust for Vocational Training. The total project cost was Rs 45 lakh. The club had also mobilised and donated 4,000 bags of cement for construction of two classrooms.
