The Madura Labour Welfare Association Higher Secondary School has been opened after a year of closure
Mahakavi Bharathi saw schools as temples of knowledge. Such was his forethought on the importance of education to uplift the poorest of the poor during the pre-independence India.
Decades after Bharathi made this clarion call, an attempt was being made to close down one of the oldest and reputed schools in the Temple city.
But for the timely intervention of the district administration, the Madura Labour Welfare Association Higher Secondary School located at Ponnagaram that was literally closed for a year, would have been a thing of past.
The school started to cater to the children of Madura Coats employees in 1950s was so popular that the Government-aided school had over 1,000 students studying in standards VI to XII till 1985. But, with the exodus of employees after the Madura Coats management introduced voluntary retirement scheme, the number of students started dwindling.
However, the real threat came after the school management changed hands and was given to another educational trust in 2007. “The deterioration started thereafter and every year the number of students went down. The management closed down the classes one by one in the guise of lack of patronage.
The two-storey building with 30 classrooms was shut down. Suddenly, last year (2011-12) the school was closed,” Collector Anshul Mishra, said.
After the local people made representation, previous Collector U. Sagayam, intervened. Besides the Communist Party of India (Marxist), a Kalvi Pathugappu Iyakkam started fighting against the closure of the school and Mr. Sagayam ordered reopening of the school.
“This is one of the finest schools and had been doing extremely well. But, suddenly there was a design to close it and the teachers were left without salary,” he added.
The management suspended Headmaster P. Selvaraju, constructed a wall dividing the school premises, locked the main entrance that gave an impression that the school had been closed for ever, the convenor of the Iyakkam, D. Rajamanickam said.
“It was the management that sent out the students citing some reason or other. The parents were asked to copy down a few sentences written on the blackboard in their application forms seeking transfer certificate for their wards. They made it appear as if all parents were withdrawing their children because they were migrating out of the town,” he said.
The Collector held talks with school teachers, parents, Iyakkam representatives and the management.
After all of them agreed for re-opening, the management backtracked and tried to stop the admission process.
Officials of the Education Department took over the management of the school as the trust had violated the agreement on continuously running the school.
Without wasting time, the officials re-instated the Headmaster and demolished the wall.
The Collector directed the Deputy Collector (Training), R. Keerthy Priyadarshini, to monitor the admission process without any disturbance from the trust.
“We are now focussing on filling up the seats of Plus One – five branches – with the students of standard X who had cleared the supplementary examinations. Since the schools had re-opened in June, we might not get enough students for other classes. However, we have asked the heads of all nearby schools to refer all students seeking new admission to this school,” Ms. Priyadarshini said. On Saturday, 15 students got admitted to Plus One, increasing the total strength to 82.
B. Vikraman, district secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), said the administration should ensure that the school is run and its objective of educating the poor of the area is met.
“Kallaadha perai ellam, kalvi payila cheithu kanbathil thaan inbam, en thozha,” (The real happiness lies in seeing all the unlettered getting education) the words in the lyrics of MGR-starrer ‘Naadodi Mannan’ holds good for this school.
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