Chennai: The five-member mothers’ committee constituted by the State School Education department to inspect facilities in schools such as toilets, drinking water, laboratories, library, playground and classroom infrastructure, seems to remain only on paper as most of the schools in the city and elsewhere in the state have failed to constitute such a committee.
Pointing out that several private schools had failed to constitute the committee, S. Arumainathan, president, Federation of Tamil Nadu Students’ Parents’ Welfare Association, said that a visit to any private school would prove that they continued to remain without any facilities and that there had been no mention of the mothers’ committee in any of the school records.
“If these committees had functioned well the quality and infrastructure of the schools would have improved. No school has announced the names of these committee members. Schools also fudge records to show that committee members had inspected the school, including the toilets and library,” he said.
Eminent academician Dr S.S. Rajagopalan questioned the rationale of the mothers’ committee when no mother visits the school as they are occupied with their own work. “
When most government schools don’t have conservancy workers to clean the toilets, how can one expect these to be clean? And in private schools, the committee will have somebody nominated by the management. How can one expect the toilet register to be correct,” he said.
However, the department officials said that they would take action against schools that did not follow their order. “Parents can lodge complaints if mothers’ committee is non-functional,” an official said.
