THOOTHUKUDI: Five years ago, the 90-year-old Panchayat Union Middle School near Alwarthirunagari had only 19 students. The dilapidated building that can accommodate a maximum capacity of 150 students was about to be closed down. But, that was a thing of the past.
Now, the school has 216 students. So what changed in the last five years or rather who changed it? Answer: A group of youth and a bunch of overzealous villagers. Started in 1931, the school had three buildings initially, with two classrooms each.
With only a few students in 2015-16 academic year, the School Education Department decided to close it down. It was then that the local youth, under the banner of Puraiyur Welfare Trust, came together and got 61 students enrolled in 2016-17, 120 in 2017- 18, 169 in 2018-19 and 242 in 2019-20.
Speaking to TNIE, a teacher, Felsia Selvarani, said, “The teachers were orally informed that schools with low student strength would be shut down. The State government’s introduction of English medium in government schools was an added advantage,” she recalled, adding,
“Following our admission campaigns, some youth came to the school and formed Puraiyur Munnetra Amaippu campaign for the school.” The youth who worked for the development of the government school under the banner, Puraiyur Munnetra Amaippu, since 2015, later registered it as “Puraiyur Welfare Trust”.
As many as five graduate teachers were employed by the trust and four others were appointed by another charitable trust, Aadhav, functioning at Arumuganeri. “Of the 16 teaching staff working in the Puraiyur panchayat union middle school, only five are government employees,” said a teacher. But the youth did not stop there. They organised annual day functions, cultural days and other activities on par with private schools, in association with the school staff, which garnered the attention of the parents who were sending their wards to private schools.
“When LKG and UKG classes were introduced in association with Puraiyur Welfare Trust in 2016, it caught the attention of many parents who started sending their children to our schools because of Englishmedium, quality education,” said Selvarani. “Over 216 students study in classes 1 to 5 in English medium, and 11 students study in classes 6 to 8 in Tamil medium, ” said Headmaster Suresh Newman. “We limit admissions for LKG and UKG up to 100 students, because we don’t have enough teachers,” he added. S Shahul of the Trust said that the school’s total strength is expected to cross 325 for 2020-21.
The increasing strength would require additional buildings, he said. He shared that the reason why the villagers had worked so hard to upgrade the school was to ensure that their children would have access to quality education in their own village. “There is no higher secondary school within the 15-kilometre radius. Upgrading the school to higher secondary would be helpful for the students coming from far off places,” he explained.
TAKING ‘SMART’ STEPS
It looks like the road to development is going in the “smart” direction. Founder of the trust, Nazar,
said, “We wish to improve facilities so that the institution becomes the first choice of parents in nearby villages as well. We have plans to introduce smart classrooms after more buildings are constructed.”