Appeal to PM Modi as Fear of Closure Grips Vanavani School
Founded in 1963 on the counsel of then Tamil Nadu chief minister K. Kamaraj, Vanavani School initially served campus staff with just 50 students and expanded over decades to educate over 2,600 pupils
CHENNAI: A growing dispute surrounding the future of Vanavani Matriculation Higher Secondary School, situated inside the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) campus, has drawn urgent appeals to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and senior government officials.
D. Inbamani, a retired technical superintendent who served the institution for over 41 years and former president of the Non-Academic Staff Association (NASA-IIT-M), recently dispatched a 13th formal reminder petition calling for high-level Central intervention to prevent what he alleges is the systematic winding down of the 63-year-old campus institution.
Founded in 1963 on the counsel of then Tamil Nadu chief minister K. Kamaraj, Vanavani School initially served campus staff with just 50 students and expanded over decades to educate over 2,600 pupils. However, according to Inbamani’s representations, student enrollment has plummeted to 1,422 following progressive enrollment curbs.
Lower Kindergarten (LKG) sections were reduced from four to two before admissions were suspended entirely for both the 2025–2026 and 2026–2027 academic sessions. Further intake restrictions have affected UKG and class 1, barring grandchildren of retired personnel and children of project staff.
The petition also underscores deep linguistic concerns. The school remains a rare institution within a Central campus operating under the Tamil Nadu state curriculum, serving a student body that is roughly 97 per cent Tamil-speaking. Petitioners contend that Tamil is being marginalised on campus while Hindi study is enforced from kindergarten upward, warning that shutting down the institution erodes regional access. A parent recently secured an interim court stay to halt the demolition of foundational kindergarten classrooms.
While retired peers initially suggested that the Prime Minister's Office would not intervene in a privately managed campus society school, Inbamani noted that previous outreach to campus administrative bodies yielded no resolution.
The petition urges the Union government to guarantee the school's survival, absorb its educators as direct IIT staff, or formally transfer operational administration of Vanavani School to the Government of Tamil Nadu.