COIMBATORE: Until a few years ago, many government schools were on the brink of closure owing to a dearth of students. This changed in the past two pandemic years when nearly six lakh private school students in classes 2 to 12 moved to government schools.
While many parents heave a sigh of relief as they no longer need to arrange for hefty school fees, they doubt if government schools would be able to offer education on a par with private ones, especially after the jump in enrolment.
K Kannan, headmaster of Arasur government higher secondary school, told TNIE that his school had a student-strength of 850 before the Covid-19 outbreak; it’s 1,200 now. “Our classrooms can accommodate only 45 students but we have an average of 60 students in each now.” He said the school needed at least six more teachers, as many classrooms, and another toilet.
Government Kanuvai high school has it worse as, a parent said, students of at least two classes have to sit outside every day due to lack of space, desks, and benches. “The classes are held under trees and teachers use movable blackboards,” the parent said.
M Muthupillai, president of TN High School and Higher Secondary School Headmaster/Headmistresses Association, said only about 60% of government schools in TN had sufficient infrastructure. Teachers also complained that they spent a large part of their duty time doing administrative tasks such as updating Educational Management Information System, which left them fewer hours to focus on students. Muthupillai said each school needed at least one non-teaching staff for clerical works.
As for teacher-student ratio, T Arulanadham, treasurer of TN High and High Secondary School Graduate Teacher Association, said the government should improve it from the current 30:1 at primary level to 20:1. “Only then can teachers take individual care of students.”
Performance matters
The National Achievement Survey 2021 (link in graphics section) draws a pattern on the performance of students in TN’s private and government schools. In classes 3 and 5, government schoolchildren outperformed private school students in language and mathematics. Private schools, however, closed this gap in classes 8 and 10 and outperformed government schools in all key performance subjects – language, mathematics, science, social sciences, Modern Indian Languages, and English. The widest gap was in English with Class 10 private school students scoring 57% while their counterparts in government schools 35%.
MJ John Arokiya Prabhu, vice-president of TN Private School Association School, said parents shifted their children to government schools as they had no alternative. “The State government allocated huge funds for school education, but still failed to meet the prescribed student-teacher ratio, hygiene, educational and infrastructure quality, and standards in extracurricular activities. Parents who think their children should get a good education will readmit their children to private schools.”
Many educationists, however, believe that students stand to gain if they continue their education in government schools. For example, the State government recently introduced the 7.5% horizontal reservation for government school students in all professional courses, including medicine, Kalvi Mempattu Kottamaipu coordinator Su Moorthy, told TNIE. He also underlined the Rs 1,000 assistance scheme intended to encourage girl students of government schools to pursue higher education.
Vasanthi Devi, president of Palli Kalvi Paathukappu Iyakkam, said School Management Committees (SMCs) can play a vital role in developing government schools. “SMCs, which include parents, are empowered to audit school funds, prepare school development plan, assess the quality of education, etc. If SMCs function effectively, they can bring in the much-needed infrastructure to schools with local support. It’s only recently that these committees, which had been dormant for 12 years, started functioning.”
K Leninbarathi, an educationist in Coimbatore, said TN government allocated Rs 100 crore to improve hygiene in government schools and Rs 7,000 crore to develop school infrastructure under Perasiriyar Anbazhagan school development scheme. Moreover, the government was planning to improve infrastructure and quality of education in 44 blocks across the State.
However, R Ramkumar, president of TN Teachers and School Protection Association, said mere allocation of a fixed sum wasn’t enough. The government should also appoint two cleanliness workers in each school. “Also, most schools in rural areas lack sufficient classrooms and toilets… If the government takes care of these issues, parents will be more inclined to admit their children to government schools,” he said.
With inputs from Jeyalakshmi Ramanujam @ Madurai
(In this series, TNIE looks at the impact of Covid-19 on TN’s school education system)
