Tamil Nadu teachers ask education department to upgrade lab equipment in schools

Teachers have urged the Tamil Nadu school education department to allocate funds exclusively for renovating Physics, Chemistry and Biology labs at government schools.

A physics teacher who works at a rural government school, on conditions of anonymity said, "Coimbatore has nearly 80 government higher secondary schools. Among them, labs at many schools don't have adequate equipment. The labs were equipped around 15 and 20 years ago and there's a need to upgrade the equipment like potentiometers and spectrometers. Some of this equipment was given by the school education department last year, but many schools have reported that those are not working properly." The teacher also stated that students are unable to gain the required knowledge from Physics experiments. She demanded that the school education department allocate funds based on lab needs.

Another teacher in Coimbatore told TNIE, "For the last three years, the school education department provided support materials for the labs worth Rs 40,000 through a private firm. But these materials were substandard could not be used by students in the labs. We feel the private firm has swindled funds. We request the government to not allow a private firm to distribute support materials."

A government school headmaster T Kamaraj (name changed) in Annur block, told TNIE, "Even though the school was upgraded in 2019, labs were not set up. Students have to go to the nearby school to conduct Science experiments. The school students suffer as they are unable to learn practical experiments." Repeated attempts to reach the top officials from the school education department bore no results.