CHENNAI: Television sets, fans and mixies – no, this is not the government’s freebies list. These are some of the items allegedly demanded by headmaster of a government-run school on the city’s outskirts from parents for Class XI admissions this year.
While demand for donations and capitation fees is nothing new in private schools, the parents who wanted to enrol their children in the Kelambakkam Government Higher Secondary School were shocked when headmaster Marimuthu demanded either money or appliances.
Agitated by this, the Class XII students of the school boycotted classes on Monday and gheraoed the headmaster’s office. This forced the Kancheepuram District Education Officer (in-charge) Rajarathinam to reach the school and conducted an enquiry into the issue around 11.30 am. “The students have given in writing their complaints and also a few evidences to substantiate it. I will submit my report to the Chief Educational Officer, who will decide further course of action,” he told Express.
Meanwhile, parents of a few students of Pallikaranai Government Higher Secondary School, where Marimuthu served as Assistant Headmaster till last year, also accused Marimuthu of forcing them to pay bribe for admissions. “Now, he seems to be continuing the same in the new school he is posted in,” said a parent of the Pallikaranai school.
Speaking to Express, many students of the Kelambakkam school narrated how the headmaster was demanding money for the Class XI admissions. Rather than collecting it as money, the headmaster has demanded fans, mixies and television sets for his residence and some have been asked to take up fencing and renovation works in the school.
From what the students say, the rates varied depending on the student’s score and stream. Since Computer Science was the most sought-after stream, those with less than 75 per cent marks in Class X, had to bribe the headmaster around Rs 20,000 to get admission.
For commerce and accountancy streams, students had to pay roughly around Rs 1,000 in addition to the tuition and exam fees fixed by the government.
“I was asked to fence the school with barbed wires and replace tiles in the toilets to get admission into commerce stream”, said Naveen Kumar, Class XII student from the school.
He added that while the government allocated funds every year to renovate worn-out elements in the school, the HM forced them to pay for it and swindle the government grants.
The school located at the end of Chennai’s IT corridor, has also allegedly collected excess annual fee from the students.
While Rs 300 was the annual fee for a Class XII government school student, students here said that they had paid around Rs 1,000 to Rs 5,000 annually.
“Despite buying electronic appliances for his house, we had to pay this excess fee to continue education”, said Balaji, another Class XII student.
Despite collecting excess fees, students complained of poor infrastructure which included leaky roofs, defunct fans, poor electrical lighting and ruptured floors along the classrooms and corridors.
As a result of these malpractices, the Kelambakkam school’s performance has taken a beating. While the district recorded an overall pass percentage of 90.72 per cent, this particular school continued its poor show by recording a pass percentage of 78 % in the recently concluded Class XII Board exam.
Out of the 221 students, around 49 had failed and only two managed to score above 1,000 out of 1,200.
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