Corporation-run schools in crisis, say councillors

CHENNAI: AIADMK Councillor J John fumed over the lack of teachers across all Corporation-run schools in Ward 84 at the monthly council meeting held on Wednesday.

“Even the PT teacher post has been vacant for two years. Teachers for Tamil and Social Science are also unavailable,” he added. “With quarterly exams in September, academic performance will suffer if staffing gaps persist. Classrooms are so scarce that English and Tamil medium students are being clubbed together in a single room.”

Several councillors echoed similar concerns, with some highlighting that students in their wards were forced to sit under trees due to the lack of proper classrooms.

Ward 58 Councillor Rajeshwari Sridhar raised the issue of the Girls’ Higher Secondary School on Rotler Street, Choolai, calling for urgent infrastructure revamp. “The school needs fresh paint, the entrance has to be rebuilt, buildings must be strengthened, and lights replaced. There’s so much pending work,” she said. “My repeated appeals at ward committee meetings have gone unaddressed.”

Currently, GCC runs around 420 schools with over 22,000 students. With rising enrolment and inadequate infrastructure, providing quality education is becoming increasingly difficult, councillors said. Ward 197 Councillor S Menega listed a series of issues affecting students in her area.

“Our ward has 3 primary schools and 2 high schools. One primary school has 133 students but only 5 classrooms. Another in Kudumiyandi Thoppu lacks a compound wall resulting in intruders often entering the premises to consume alcohol and engage in illegal activities, even damaging or stealing school property. It’s a recurring issue. The third school lacks even basic amenities like toilets,” she elaborated.

Menega also pointed out that students from the ward’s high schools (around 455 students) have to travel 10 km to Tiruvanmiyur or Kovalam for higher secondary education. She urged the Corporation to expand facilities in Uthandi’s higher secondary school, just 2.5 km away, to accommodate more students.

Responding to the concerns, Mayor Priya instructed officials to visit the schools and submit project estimates within 10 days. She also announced that 232 additional teachers would be appointed within a month.

Meanwhile, a heated exchange broke out when CPM Councillor M Renuka (Ward 42) alleged that some government school headmasters were denying admission to students who scored relatively low in Class 10 public exams, in order to reserve preferred groups for higher-scoring students, similar to the approach of private schools.

“Where will these children go if even government schools reject them?” she asked.

The comment drew strong opposition from DMK councillors, who refuted claims of such practices in any city-run school. Mayor Priya too dismissed these claims and advised councillors to report specific cases to senior officials rather than generalising them.