Here's why tribal residents of Keeraipatti are petitioning officials to upgrade high school to higher secondary school

Tribal residents of Keeraipatti urge the Education department to upgrade the local government high school to Higher secondary school. Keerapatti government high school was constructed in 1980 and since then many infrastructure upgrades have resulted in the construction of over 18 class rooms, complete science lab and computer lab.

Among the 240 students here over 180 students are tribal residents and because of the lack of other higher secondary school in the vicinity, residents are requesting the school education department upgrade the high school to Higher Secondary school.

Speaking to TNIE, Kaliappan a resident of Keeraipatti said, Over 70 per cent of the students in this school are tribal residents and the nearest higher secondary school is the Harur Government School which lies over 12 km away. Our area lies on the foothills of Sitheri hill and buses are not frequent here. Hence a higher secondary school will greatly benefit the residents. Apart from this the Sitheri Government Higher Secondary school lies 26 km away and it is not practical to climb up the hill for school. Hence a upgrade of the school is necessary."

Another resident, R Palani said, "While they have the infrastructure they do not have the Rs 2 lakh deposit required by the PTA to upgrade the school. Hence we request the school education department to provide an exception. Most of the children parents are poor laborers and even with minimum contribution it is not possible to amass the required money. Hence we urge the school administration to take steps to bring a higher secondary school for the welfare of tribal residents."

When TNIE spoke to Ponmudi, District Education Officer of Harur he said, "The decision is not ours to make. We have forwarded the peoples request to the School Education department and the decision will be made by senior officials in Chennai. There are a total the three PTAs which have requested their school to be upgraded and we have forwarded the each of the request."