TIRUPATTUR
A decade-long wait to upgrade the Government High School in Nayakaneri, a tribal village atop the Nayakaneri hillock, to the higher secondary level is forcing more than 100 tribal students, including 40 girls, to trek to the Government Higher Secondary School in Devalapuram village near Ambur town, Tirupattur, which is over 20 kms away from the hillock, for higher classes every day.
Residents and parents, who are mostly tribal farmers and petty traders, have been petitioning the district education officials and elected representatives, including A. C. Vilwanathan, MLA (Ambur), since they had back in 2014 mobilised a sum of ₹2 lakh as ‘caution deposit’ and paid to the Department of School Education for the upgradation of the high school into the higher secondary level.
The upgrade would let the students take up classes at the school in Nayakaneri itself and avoid the arduous walk downhill to reach Devalapuram. Students from at least 10 tribal hamlets, including Naduvur, Melulur, Pudueriyur, Kollaimedu, Pudur, Eriparai and Sholakollamedu on the hillock, traverse nearly 25 kms every day to reach the higher secondary school in Devalapuram.
“Most of the teachers stay at the hillock to ensure classes start on time. Due to the delay in upgradation, the dropout rate has also gone up as parents prefer to enrol their wards in schools at the foothills that classes have up to Grade XII,” said K. Arunpandi, headmaster in-charge.
Every day, only a private mini-bus ply two trips respectively at 6.30 a.m. and 8 p.m. between Nayakaneri and Ambur town. No government bus has been operational due to the steepness of the hillock. Higher class students from other hamlets have to congregate at Nayakaneri to board the mini-bus which is usually packed. Many times, students form small groups and trudge down the hill to reach the government school at Devalapuram village, 24 kms from Nayakaneri village.
Opened in September 1963, the Government High School in Nayakaneri village panchayat, which comprises Nayakaneri, Kamanur Thattu and Panakatteri hamlets with around 3,500 persons in its nine wards, has 280 students, including 146 girls.
Spread across three acres on the hillock, the high school consists of six classrooms with 11 teachers. Despite its remoteness, the school has been able to achieve over 90% pass percentage in Class X for many years since its upgradation into the high school level in 2008. Every year, around 100 Class X students pass out from the school. This year, the school has 72 students in its Class ten.
Education officials said a facelift to the school’s infrastructure, including adequate classrooms, laboratories and playground, and its potential for enrolment of students from surrounding areas also form part of the criteria for upgradation. “Like Nayakaneri (the school), many schools await upgradation in the district. We can’t say anything as the State government has to decide on it,” K. Muni Subbarayan, Chief Educational Officer (CEO), Tirupattur, told The Hindu.
