Parents demands English medium in school

HOSUR: Parents of the Government Boys Higher Secondary School in Bagalur here forcibly closed the school on Monday morning, demanding the government to restart English medium education.Over 1,000 students study in this school situated on the TN-Karnataka border, around 20-kms from here. Primarily, Telugu, Kannada and Tamil speaking people live here, and the town is surrounded by several industries like Premier Mills and Asian Bearings. Parent Teachers Association (PTA) Secretary Muniandi told Express that the protest is to attract the attention of the government, as the school does not teach English despite having permission to do so. He said the English was started in the school in 1997, permitted by the education department. It functioned smoothly for 10 years, but the administration has stopped admitting students in sixth to ninth standard in English medium since 2007.  Currently, the English medium scheme has been partly implemented. Only students studying 10th, 11th and 12th have the facility, while others have to study in Tamil or other regional languages. Due to this, the parents in Bagalur are forced to admit their kids in the government-run English medium HSS in Hosur.“We had represented the matter to the District Educational Department several times, but they have not taken any action,” parents alleged. The school also does not have a headmaster. “The headmaster’s post has been vacant for a long time,” said a teacher. After locking the school, the parents made their kids sit on the floor in front of the school, raising slogans. When revenue officials tried to convince them, they refused to move. Officials of the education department and Bagalur police later convinced them to call off their agitation.