COIMBATORE: With summer holidays, private schools and play schools are organising special camps violating norms due to the laxity of educational officers, allege activists. Citing the alleged drowning of a four-year-old girl in a water tank at a play school in Madurai last week, they demanded regulation or a ban on summer camps held by private schools, considering children’s safety.
In Coimbatore too, such summer camps for children are now being conducted by private schools without any checks as the educational officer of the school education department gives them a free hand, say activists.
Coimbatore-based activist S Basha told TNIE that money-spinning summer camps violate norms and educational officers allow them to function.
“Following the girl’s death at a summer camp, the Madurai District Collector issued an order barring all types of schools from conducting any classes in the name of sports, special classes, evening classes, summer camps during summer holidays. The school licence, too, was cancelled,” he said.
“Even after this incident, schools in Coimbatore are conducting summer camps for their own students and other children by fixing fees ranging from Rs 3,000 to Rs 12,000 for summer courses on handwriting improvement, drawing, interactive indoor activities, etc.
If authorities were interested, they could have included these activities in the school curriculum and taught students instead of doing so under the guise of summer camps. But they aim to earn money from parents,” Basha alleged.
He urged the Coimbatore District Collector to ban summer camps as was done in Madurai. Meanwhile, the All Private Schools Association alleged that many unapproved playschools are functioning in Coimbatore without obtaining opening licences from the school education department.
Association president Mayadevi Shankar told TNIE that instead of issuing notices to unapproved schools for explanation every year, the school education department and the district administration should close them down.
She alleged that even unapproved schools conduct summer camps for children illegally. She claimed that there was no response from the district administration and the school education department despite petitioning them on this matter.
Mayadevi pointed out that these private schools have no power to conduct summer camps and alleged some schools conduct summer camps for children aged 2.
Education Development Committee coordinator S Shanmugasundaram told TNIE, “We cannot say summer camps by private entities don’t serve a purpose. Some children want to learn something during the summer. But there is a need for regulation and guidelines for the conduct of summer classes through a government body.
As there is no regulation by the government, cheating occurs in some camps, and a few private institutions conduct summer camps on swimming, sports, etc, ignoring children’s safety,” he said.
When contacted, a principal of a private school in the city told TNIE that schools conduct camps at the request of parents because parents do not have time to care for their children during the summer vacation.
She claimed no permission is required to conduct such camps.
Repeated attempts to reach the Chief Educational Officer R Balamurali and DEO for private schools, Punitha Anthonyammal went in vain.
When contacted, Coimbatore district collector Pavankumar G Giriyappanavar told TNIE that he would look into this matter through educational officers.