CHENNAI: Nearly nine years after the death of V Vishal, a nine-year-old Class 4 student, in a compound wall collapse at the Panchayat Union Elementary School in Kudumiyampatti village, Harur, Dharmapuri district, where he was studying, the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) on Monday recommended the state government to provide Rs 5 lakh as compensation to his father.
The commission concluded that the incident, which happened in 2016, was due to negligence of public officials who failed to repair or rebuild the wall despite its bad condition. The SHRC came to the conclusion even after the departmental action against the teachers had been dropped and the criminal case against one of the teachers was dismissed by a magistrate court in 2017.
The SHRC also advised the Tamil Nadu government to instruct the school education directorates to establish clear guidelines for maintaining school buildings and compound walls. The commission suggested that chief educational officers (CEOs), district educational officers (DEOs) and other field officers coordinate with headmasters and parent-teacher associations (PTAs) or school management committees (SMCs) to prevent such incidents. It recommended monthly review meetings, particularly during the rainy season and school reopening periods to ensure students’ safety.
The commission took suo motu cognisance of the incident based on media reports and sought responses from the Director of Elementary Education, Chennai, and the Superintendent of Police (SP), Dharmapuri.
The two teachers — Deivanai and Mythili — and HM Valarmathi also gave their responses to the commission.
The police inquiry had reportedly revealed that teacher Deivanai had instructed Vishal to jump over the compound wall to take a key that had fallen outside the wall. When he attempted to do so, the wall collapsed on him and he died.
Deivanai and Valarmathi were suspended, while disciplinary action was initiated against Mythili and the then assistant elementary educational officer Karunakaran.
The SHRC noted that the disciplinary action under the Tamil Nadu Civil Services Rules was discharged. The criminal case against Deivanai was dismissed by the Judicial Magistrate, Harur, in July 2017. However, the commission, after perusal of the materials, concluded that Vishal’s death resulted from the public servants’ negligence and added that proper maintenance of the compound wall could have prevented it.