Gone are the days when the parents admitted their kids in the private schools across TN!!
The sources have confirmed that there has been an unexpected fallout that is primary school students leaving the private schools and joining the government schools now. This has been mainly due to the grand success of the chief minister`s breakfast scheme.
As the private self-financing schools are unable to meet their salary needs, they have been cutting down both non-teaching as well as the teaching staff. It must be taken into account that till date the salary needs of the above said persons were met through the collection of fees from the students. The sources mentioned that the impact has been more in the rural places than in the Vellore town.
It was later brought to light by the correspondent from Sneha Deepam Higher Secondary School in Vasur in Vellore outskirts that from the original strength of 2000 now the school has got just 1000 students in the primary classes from 1 to 5. He added that the breakfast scheme was the main reason.
From a strength of 1300 students,a school operated by the Catholic community at Veppur near Visharam has just 300 students now. This place is about 12kms from Vellore town.
It must be noted that the rural households are economically poor and the breakfast scheme has become a godsend for the kid`s parents who are economically poor. The parents do not feel guilty regarding sending their kids to the schools without providing them with breakfast.
Not only free breakfast attracts the parents now but also the free lunch plus others like free textbooks and notebooks, uniforms, cycles, laptops etc. This was mentioned by a correspondent from another Vellore based private school.