Date:18.04.

2015

PMK Founder Dr. S. Ramadoss Statement

Schools without classrooms:

Tamil Nadu's shame
Instead of opening free lunch centres and temples, it is dharma to open schools and provide
education, said Tamil bard Subramania Bharathi. But in Tamil Nadu without understanding
this, there are Amma canteens, daily yagas across the temples are taking place in a
competitive mode but there is no care to provide education.
In primary schools, there used to be classes 1 to 5 and depending upon the number of
students, there will be sections. Thus there should be 5 to 10 classrooms in such schools. But
according to data released by District Information System for Education (DISE), in Rural
Tamil Nadu , nearly 47.18% of the schools have only 2 classrooms. In urban areas, in nearly
18% of the schools, there are only 2 classrooms.
Apart from this, in schools which have only 2 classrooms, there are five standards and only
2 teachers to man all the classes and students.Of the two teachers, one might be asked to do
some official work outside the school or the teacher may be out on personal work, thus in
effect only one teacher is present in the school. It is not possible for two teachers to teach all
the subjects for all classes with 2 classrooms. In such circumstances, either the teacher takes
a lesson which is common for all classes or asks other class children to play or do some other
work. Such practice will not help the students in any way. Making students play without
supervision results in injury to the children.
In a survey conducted in rural schools of the state, nearly 43.8% of the children in class 1
could not identify English alphabets and in class 5 nearly 33.1% of the students were not able
to read English sentences. The reason for such poor standard is the absence of teachers,
classrooms and other basic infrastructure. It is a shame that even after 68 years of Independence, there is no proper infrastructure in village schools. Dravidian parties have been claiming
in the last 49 years that Tamil Nadu is a frontline state but the present condition of village
schools does not reflect the claims.
The state government which appoints 6 to 7 persons for a liquor shop, has appointed only
2 teachers in primary schools. This shows what sort of importance the government gives for
education. When it is not able to provide basic infrastructure in village schools, the
government is starting English medium sections in government primary schools.

Date:
Though PMK does not agree with commencing English medium schools, what will be the
standard of education in such English medium schools when there are only 2 teachers. The
government should explain this.
Without wasting time by announcing projects for the sake for publicity, the government
should take steps to improve the infrastructure of all schools, including primary schools and
appoint enough teachers and construct classrooms. This will improve the standard of
education.

Yours,

(Dr. S.Ramadoss)