MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Thursday directed Chief Educational Officers of 12 districts falling under its jurisdiction to file by August 24 a report on the infrastructure and facilities available in government schools.
A bench of justices CV Karthikeyan and R Sakthivel gave the direction while hearing a PIL to repair dilapidated buildings in the government schools in 12 districts namely, Dindigul, Virudhunagar , Karur, Thoothukudi, Tiruchy, Pudukkottai, Theni, Tenkasi, Tirunelveli, Madurai, Ramanathapuram, Karur and Thanjavur.
District Coordinator of Neelam Panpattu Maiyam in Pudukkottai district, K Muruganandam, stated in his petition that as per RTI reports, majority of buildings in government schools in the above districts are in a damaged condition, posing risk to students.
Hearing the plea, the judges directed the CEOs concerned to instruct district educational officers to conduct a physical inspection in the schools and obtain reports from headmasters regarding the water and drainage facilities, toilets compound walls, overgrown bushes, availability of sanitary workers and watchmen, etc.
The CEOs were further directed to compile the reports and submit them to the court by the next hearing on August 24. In case of rectifiable defects, the CEOs need not wait for court orders and should carry out repair works and file a report on them, judges added.
Further directions were given to the director of school education to monitor the works. Meanwhile, the principal secretary of the school education department was directed to examine the possibility of engaging temporary sanitary workers to maintain cleanliness in the schools.
