Major revamp transforms govt schools in State

TIRUCHY: Despite the Covid-19 pandemic making the world more fragile and impacting human lives, it has left a line of thought for people to discover things within the reach.

It has exposed the fact that government schools excel on par with private schools, and this led the people to opt for government-run institutions for their wards to continue their education in post-COVID season.

There are several reasons that the pandemic season had driven away the aversion to government schools among the public. Many schools had vied with private schools in terms of the teaching methodology and various other infrastructures.

Thanks to the volunteers including elected local body members and the PTA of each school who played a pivotal role in transforming the overall development of the schools.

The local body elected members on their part went on campaigning for admission to these schools and drafting plans for improved facilities to compete with the private schools.

Though uniforms on par with the private schools were introduced in certain schools to attract the students as well as the parents, the proactive people found it difficult in raising funds. But the CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) funds came in handy for the development of schools.

In Tiruchy City Corporation, a consultative meeting was held during the beginning of the academic year with the civic administration, elected members and headmasters of the schools in which demand to facilitate more smart classrooms in the Corporation schools and to improve the schools’ infrastructure by constructing of additional classrooms and toilets were requested.

“Smart classrooms are quite handy for the students to understand even complex subjects through virtual examples. It will improve the enrolment as parents and students are enthused about technology,” said K Asha Devi, headmaster of Pirattiyur corporation middle school who is also a national best teacher awardee.

Therefore, components like touchscreen, projector, audio/video devices, and desktop/laptop were readied for the smart classrooms. A fund of Rs 4.12 crore was allocated to convert the classrooms into smart classrooms.

Five out of 74 corporation schools have been funded by the civic administration while around 50 per cent of schools were provided with CSR funding, individual funds, and crowdfunding.

“Once the government schools were in a state of neglect, we now witness a decent admission since the previous academic year”, said L Parimala, a govenment school teacher in Tiruchy.