CHENNAI: Parents of a government high school at Kunnanpuram in Thalavadi block in Erode district have been forced to hire a private tutor for Rs 15,000 to prepare students for mathematics supplementary exam to be held on June 30 after 24 of 40 students failed in the subject in Class 10 public exam. The school is unable to provide proper coaching to students, parents said.
Kunnapuram Government Middle School, which was upgraded into a high school in 2018, currently has 142 students in Classes 6 to 10 attending classes from three classrooms. Parents said the school should ideally have 10 classrooms as it has both English and Tamil medium students.
Though lack of infrastructure is one of the pressing issues affecting quality of education at the school, the parents’ immediate concern is lack of adequate teachers. Though the school’s sanctioned strength is one headmaster and five teachers, the school has only three permanent teachers.
“The school has permanent teachers for English, social science, and mathematics. About five months ago, we staged a protest demanding appointment of a headmaster and other teachers.
Temporary teachers were appointed after that through the school management committee,” said Kanniyan Subramanian, an activist and resident of Thalavadi. The school, however, still fared poorly in the Class 10 exam this year. Twenty-four students failed in maths, four in Tamil, and eight students each failed in science & social science.
Parents could enrol kids in other schools
Disheartened by the result, parents are contemplating moving their children to schools with better infrastructure and qualified teachers though students may have to travel longer distances.
“As 60% of the students failed in mathematics, we approached the authorities to inquire about the possibility of holding special classes. Unfortunately, the math teacher was not cooperative, and we were compelled to hire a tutor for a monthly fee of Rs 15,000,” a parent said.
This despite the school education department’s announcement that special classes will be conducted for students who failed in Class 10 exam till June 30 “My daughters are studying in Class 8 and Class 10. As we are not getting any solution to our problems, I have no option but to enrol my children in another school,” said R Thomas.
The parents wanted the school education department to construct at least two additional classrooms and appoint dedicated teachers. Erode district education officials didn’t respond to phone calls. When TNIE contacted senior education officials in Chennai they said that they would look into the issue and do the needful.