Education department, corporation at loggerheads
As many as 141 elementary, high and higher secondary schools in the city corporation’s.
Chennai: As many as 141 elementary, high and higher secondary schools in the city corporation’s extended areas, such as Perungudi, Tiruvotriyur, Manali, Ambattur and Madhavaram, still function under the school education department even after the city corporation had requested it to hand them over.
According to Ripon Building sources, the top brass of the city corporation had sent a proposal to the state government for transfer of control. “We had submitted the proposal an year ago as the state government extended our jurisdiction to include Chennai’s suburbs, including Perungudi, Tiruvotriyur, Manali, Ambattur and Madhavaram.
We are still waiting for the government’s nod to get these 141 schools under our control as we need to allot posts of existing teachers and headmasters as the new system is a cumbersome one,” a senior official said.
At present, the city corporation administers over 310 schools (elementary, high and higher) with a student strength of 98,857 and 4,041 teachers.
“The city corporation has been providing several schemes to meritorious students, including financial assistance to Class XII students, '25,000 every year for those who joined professional courses, such as MBBS and BE.
Even as the state’s school education department had been implementing various student welfare schemes in the 141 schools in the extended areas, we want to supplement them with our incentives,” the official said.
When asked about the city corporation’s proposal, a senior school education department official said that as it involved policy decisions to be taken at the State government’s level, they were clueless about the proposal.