Complete makeover, a class apart

How a vice principal armed with his team of students transformed a decrepit govt school in Pondy

- DEBJANI DUTTA

Walls etched with graffiti, the putrid stench of dirty toilets, classrooms with crumbling walls and pillars revealing rough patches of red bricks and switchboards with wires hanging out.

Dr BR Ambedkar Higher Secondary School, a rural government school in Embalam, was the antonym of a model school, till a few years ago. Several parents did not bat an eye and transferred their wards from the school, leaving 460 students spread across classes 6 to 12 at the mercy of the decrepit school.

When M Karunagaran left a government clerical job to pursue his passion for teaching and joined government school in Kirumampakkam as vice principal in July 2023, the school was deplorable with disciplinary issues and a lack of leadership. Therein began a journey to transform the school into a haven of learning.

After gathering inputs from students, he tackled the sanitation issue first by mobilising resources from within the community, alumni, and his personal network, raising ₹40,000 to repair the toilets and another ₹2.65 lakh for other sanitation facilities, eliminating the stench that had previously permeated the school. Each student was provided with a set of two big towels to ensure they had a clean place to sit for meals.

Karunagaran further raised an additional ₹7 lakh, with ₹5 lakh using the government's SSA (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan) funds to renovate the main school building and with a fresh coat of blue paint, the colour picked by the students.