Chennai: Corporation not spending right or enough on education

Chennai: Rs 3.92 crore is 0.00076% of Rs 5,123.51 crore. Even on paper, the sum is negligible and yet that is how much the Greater Chennai corporation allocated for its Education Department to spend in 2016-17 from its total expenditure outlay. This lack of quantitative spending has come under fire as educationists ridiculed the corporation for not considering education as a serious investment sector. To put it in context, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) allocated Rs 2143.75 crore for education in its 2016-17 budget, which is around 6.5 per cent of the total outlay of Rs 33,514.15 crore.

“Rs 4 crore is insufficient funding but that is what happens when budget documents are prepared at the whims and fancies of bureaucrats,” said prominent educationist, P.B. Prince Gajendra Babu. “For example, corporation schools don’t have a permanent conservancy worker or watchmen. They have outsourced this work to contractors. But without a permanent employee, the maintenance drops,” added Gajendra Babu.

As many as 98,000 students study in nearly 284 corporation schools with around 3,200 teachers appointed to teach them. When DC enquired with a few schools, its headmasters confirmed that the temporary conservancy workers worked a single shift and that by evening, the bathrooms would give out nauseating smells.

But if the stink was an issue for students and teachers, there should be enough bathrooms to generate it at least. Schools like the higher secondary school in Velachery only have two bathrooms for the 700 odd students studying there - one for boys and one for girls, including the faculty.

Vacancy in teaching positions is also another issue that remains unaddressed. Teachers, speaking on condition of anonymity, told DC that the local body does little to influence allotment of teachers to Chennai schools.

“If you look at our primary schools where English medium of instruction has been introduced, the corporation uses secondary grade teachers whose diploma certificate courses were earned in Tamil medium. These teachers themselves have problems with spoken English. They are doing hotchpotch job but the question is why doesn’t the corporation think it is necessary to hire an English language teacher?” asked a headmaster of a prominent corporation school, requesting anonymity.

In fact, the shortage also extends to lack of physical education instructors. None of the primary schools have one and as a result, the students are deprived of valuable physical training exercise during their childhood.

“When the Union Ministry of Health insists that students be awarded marks for their physical activity, this situation in corporation school stands out. In some high schools, there are no physical directors either,” said a teacher at a corporation school.

Lack of enthusiasm among the councillors to discuss these issues is also a reason why the situation is like it is because they are the key to lobbying for increased spending in education.

“The problem is that the councillors do not discuss people-centric issues in the corporation council. Individually, a few of them are ready to support monetarily on a humanitarian basis, but none of them have the knowledge to properly discuss these issues on the council floor,” noted Gajendra Babu. Senior corporation officials were unavailable for comment.