Abandoned for over a year: Villupuram parents want govt schools to be cleaned and sanitised before reopening on November 1

With schools reopening on November 1, many government schools in Villupuram district of Tamil Nadu were accused of not maintaining the school properly during the lockdown for the past two years. Parents demanded basic hygienic conditions in the schools to send their ward amidst the pandemic.

Over 1,900 government schools under the management of the school education department and panchayat union in Villupuram will reopen after almost two years, but parents have shown concern over the hygienic and safety conditions of the schools. Several schools were alleged to be used for illegal leisure activities by miscreants in the village, including liquor and drug consumption after campuses were allegedly left abandoned with little or no compound walls.

Residents of Pathirapuliyur, Muthampalayam, Panchalam villages, coastal villages along Marakkanam said that the government schools in their area were severely damaged. A 35-year old resident from Muthampalayam village told TNIE, "The high school here serves as a shelter for miscreants to consume liquor at night hours within the school campus. People also use the school park as a dump yard and cattle shelter. In this situation, if students come to school in 10 days, what will they imbibe from these conditions?".

Another resident of the Panchalam village claimed that the middle school in the village is damaged and that it may collapse anytime. "With the monsoon rains beginning to lash out,and the school roof half gone, the building might collapse. We are skeptical about sending our wards to the school," said K Mohan, a resident from Pathirapuliyur. Chief Education Officer Krishnapriya told TNIE, "The schools would have been cleaned but the Block Development Officers were deployed for local body elections duty. The Collector had also directed all the BDOs in the district to employ workers to clean the goverment school campuses in the coming week to ensure hygiene and safety levels on point."