Take over aided school on verge of closure, govt urged

Coimbatore: Residents of Pillayarpuram near Kuniyamuthur in the city on Monday urged the district administration to convert the aided elementary school in their locality into a government school, instead of shutting it down. They also petitioned district collector K Rajamani in this regard.
Set up in 1986, Bethel Livesey Memorial aided school initially had a strength of close to 1,000 students, said M Arun Kumar, one of the petitioners.
Pointing out that the school education department had not been renewing the school’s recognition for the past few years, he said as a result the student strength has plunged to 14 presently.
Arun said there were 2,000 families in the locality and that parents would admit their wards to the school, if it was turned into a government school. “It will help the school regain its recognition. While there are two government schools within 3km radius, residents are scared to send their children to those schools as they have to cross two highway roads to reach there.”
The school education department had sent a notice to the school management in 2018, directing them to get building stability certificate for the school. It had subsequently issued a final notice in July 2019, directing them to close the school by the end of the academic year.
Following this, the school management decided to handover the school to the government and has submitted a letter stating the same to the school education department.
When contacted, an official with the office of district educational officer (Perur) said the school was constructed on government poramboke land and that the school management had not paid the lease amount for more than 10 years. “The pending lease amount will come around Rs 1 crore. Now that only 14 students are there, we have sent a notice to the school directing them to close it by the end of the academic year.”
When asked about the possibility of converting it into a government school, the official said a final decision was yet to be taken. “The decision would have to be taken by the directorate of school education.”