The Hindu      22.08.2017

Corpn to give uniforms to 450 nursery students

The City Corporation will be providing uniforms to the students in all the nine nursery schools that it runs.

The
uniform distribution, which is being taken up in association with the
Kerala State Handloom Development Corporation (Hanveev), will be done
soon after the Onam holidays, says S.Unnikrishnan, the Chairman of the
local body’s Education Standing Committee.

“We are using money
from the Corporation’s own funds as the District Planning Committee did
not give us approval for the project. Since it is meant for children
from the weaker sections, we thought of using our own funds. An amount
of Rs. 9 lakh has been set aside for the project,” says Mr.Unnikrishnan.

There are close to 450 students across the nine nursery schools of the city Corporation.

These schools have been facing dwindling student strength.

The local body has taken up various measures, including the improvement of infrastructure facilities to attract more students.

Loses control

Earlier
this year, it lost control of its nursery school at Kamaleswaram after a
temple committee went to court staking claim on it.

“The
Corporation has been running the school in Kamaleswaram for several
decades. But, in recent years, the committee of the adjacent temple
began raising claims for the school. They went to the court and won
control. The school is now locked down. But, to compensate for that, we
immediately opened another nursery school in a location close by. It now
has 18 students,” says Mr. Unnikrishnan.

The local body also
plans to expand the nursery school at Vallakkadavu, which now has 110
students. The Akshaya centre which is functioning in the adjacent
building is proposed to be shifted to another location, so that the
school gets more space.

The Kuriyathi nursery school has 62 students and the one in Valiyathura has 65.