More students of govt schools await help through crowdfunding

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic situation, the number of students and government schools benefitting from Tamil Nadu School Education Department’s crowdfunding has drastically increased during the past one year.

The portal, ‘Be a Champion of Change for Government Schools’, an initiative of the School Education Department, was launched in November 2019 to benefit about 20,000 government schools and government-aided schools across the state and to help little over 25 lakh students. However, the number of students, who qualify for the scheme through crowdfunding, has increased to more than 33 lakh. Similarly, the number of government schools, which need infrastructure facilities, has also increased to about 21,000.

A senior official from the School Education Department said as of February 3, 2022, the total number of students has increased to 33,71,160. “Likewise, as many as 21,406 government schools have added to the beneficiaries list,” he said.

He said the increase in the number of beneficiaries (students) through third-party funds comes against the backdrop of the poor economical background of the students whose parents made financial losses due to lengthy lockdown.

“As new admissions in the government and government-aided schools have increased, the requirement for donations in the schools have also increased accordingly,” he said.

With regard to the inclusion of additional schools in the beneficiary list, the official said during recent rains, it was reported that several schools were affected.

“Expect for building damage, all other losses including repair works on damaged windows and doors have to be carried out and hence, the number of schools has also increased,” he added.

Pointing out that the crowdfunding portal also accepts specific needs of the institutions including books, electronic devices, sports equipment, and more, the official said “accordingly, the requirement of these items have also increased”.

However, the official rued that number of donors has not increased that much during the last one year. As many as 193 supporters including companies and individuals have contributed Rs 9,63,948 in 2021-2022 as of date. He added that in 2020-2021, it was about Rs 7 lakh with a little over 170 supporters.