COIMBATORE: In a shocking revelation, more than one-third of elementary and middle schools in Tamil Nadu do not have a compound wall, making schools unsafe for children.
According to the data released by the Directorate of Elementary Education (DEE), 11,906 of the 31,266 government primary and middle schools across Tamil Nadu have not built compound walls, thereby compromising the safety and security of students.
The data showed that Pudukkottai district is in the first place, where, as many as 886 schools are functioning without compound wall. Villupuram district comes second with 745 schools.
Other than Pudukkottai and Villupuram, there is no compound wall in more than 500 schools in six districts, including, Vellore, Cuddalore, Salem, Sivaganga, Thanjavur, and Tiruvannamalai. There is no compound wall in the 203 schools in Coimbatore district.
However, only one school is in need of compound wall in Chennai district. Now, the DEE has taken steps to construct compound walls in all of these schools soon.
A DEE official said, “DEE had collected the particulars of compound walls in schools in district level through Block Educational Officers (BEOs) in January 2020. In that, we found that there are no compounds walls in 11,906 government primary and middle schools out of the total 31,266 schools across the State.”
“It has been decided to construct compound walls in those schools and the works would be completed by June,” he assured
One-third of the schools
As many as 11,906 of the total 31,266 government primary and middle schools across Tamil Nadu have not built compound walls, according to the data released by Directorate of Elementary Education