A generous gift left unused and locked away from potential users and learning, as is the case of smart classrooms installed by the Erode corporation at the Kamarajar Government Higher Secondary School that lies idle. This comes after School Education Minister KA Sengottaiyan had recently announced the creation of smart classrooms in 3,000 government schools at a cost of Rs 60 crore this year. 

According to sources, the corporation had offered 20 digital board with computers and sound systems to a few schools under its ambit. The Railway Colony school, one each in Idayankattu and SKC road and the Kamarajar school were among the beneficiaries. Teachers of the schools were provided with CDs/DVDs of various subjects. 

However, at Kamarajar school, the digital board was kept in a classroom of the first floor in a section of the school building that seemed to have been abandoned. The room and others around it were locked with dust and garbage piling up in the area. Despite the noble intentions of wanting to improve the standard of education, the scheme's purpose has been lost. Neither the teachers nor department officials bothered to take the programme beyond the initial set up. The condition of the smart classrooms in other schools too could be in a similar state. 

The school's headmaster S Somasundaram, however, claimed that students of class X and XII periodically made use of the facility. With the various tests these children have to take up, they did not have enough time for smart classes, he added. Stating that this 117-year-old school, an institution that had Thanthai Periyar as a pupil, has had an average pass per cent of 70, which he claims increased to 96 per cent since he took over.