Headmaster tries to woo new students with 1,000

Coimbatore: To boost students’ enrolment at the panchayat union primary school at Mettulakshminaickenpalayam in Sulthanpet block, school headmaster P Lakshmanasamy has announced a cash prize of 1,000 for every new entrant.
As many as 10 students are studying in classes I to V in the school. Before the pandemic, there were 15 students in the school.
Lakshmanasamy said many schools, both private and government, had come up in the locality, leading to fall in students’ enrolment in the school.
He said no parent has approached him for admission in the current academic year, and hopes the cash incentive may encourage parents to send their wards to his school.
Lakshmanasamy said parents are reluctant to send their children to his school as he is the only teacher there. “But I have been meeting parents and informed them that curriculum will be covered on time and during my absence, a substitute teacher will take classes for students.”
On the sidelines of his work, he has been distributing pamphlets to inform the locals about the cash prize for the newly admitted students.
The school headmasterhad followed the same idea last year too and was able to enrol three new students then.