 Free school appeals for funds
 The Ganapathy National Middle School celebrated its 78th annual day on March 18, 2006. The school, founded in 1929, by G Rathinam Pillai, is a landmark in Saidapet, Chennai.
It got government recognition in 1933 and has been functioning from the same premises since then.
The successor to Rathinam Pillai was manager and headmaster S Raghavachariar whose old students occupy high positions in different fields today.
 The school, situated on V S Mudali Street, Saidapet, has classes up to the eighth with a strength of 700 students, of which 650 hail from the Scheduled Caste and Backward Classes. The parents are mostly poor weavers, scavengers and daily wage earners from different slums of the locality. The school has got a name for the standard of education with a strength of 18 teachers.
In addition to free education, the students get the benefit of nutritiious noon meals in the school. The school is an aided institution with the salary and some portion of the expenditure met by the state government. The school has to manage on its own for its major financial needs for meeting other development expenditure. In spite of these odds, the school is being run successfully by the present manager and correspondent, T Srinivasan, with public support, patronage of donors and with the able assistance of R Vasantha, headmistress of the school, and a team of efficient teachers.
But, the school is caught in some litigation. In 1977, the owner of the school building had filed a case in court for eviction of the school from the premises and eviction was ordered.
Based on a request from the school management, the then state government acquired the building for running the school. The owner of the school building field a writ petition against the acquisition in the High Court in 1986. But the school management challenged the petition and went up to the Supreme Court and succeeded in 1996.
 The Supreme Court observed and expressed in its order about the school that it was a free educational institution serving the public by satisfying the constitutional right under Article 29 i.e., Right to Free Education. By its order, the Supreme Court recognised the continuation of the school on the same premises and appreciated the state government for having acquired the building for the school.
However, the High Court has ruled that the school management must pay compensation to the owner.
“We wish to say that a major obstacle for the further development of the school is that it does not have a building of its own and it has always been functioning from a rented building. Therefore, a trust named Ganapathy National Middle School Foundation has been formed to help out the school,” says the chairman and managing trustee of the foundation.
The Ganapathy National Middle School Foundation is a registered trust formed in 1992 with the objective of enlighting the masses by eradicating illiteracy. In line with this, the trust has decided to assist Ganapathy National Middle School continue on the same premises.
The main objective of the trust is to provide free education, award scholarship to deserving students and maintain the institution. The trust’s first and foremost goal is to help the school have a building of its own. After 20 years of court cases, the school has got the building of its own through the state government’s acquisition. With the verdict going in favour of the school, the management has to pay compensation to the building owner and also reconstruct a portion of the premises.
 “Hence, we request you to donate liberally to our foundation which will help and encourage us to serve the public for many more years to come. We have got exemption from Income Tax Department under Section 80-G for donations,” says an appeal from the foundation.
The trust cries out to the many former students who are advocates, doctors, engineers, IAS officers, Central and state government servants, businessmen, judges, scholars, accountants and are living examples of the service rendered by the school, to help out the school for a noble cause. The trust is even willing to come home to accept your donations.
Otherwise, donations may be sent by cash/Demand Draft/cheque in favour of:
Ganapathy National Middle School Foundation
Chairman & Managing Trustee,
52, Abid Colony,
Alandur Road,
Saidapet,
Chennai - 600 015
Phone: 2381 2815
E-mail: ganapathischool@yahoo.com
Website: http://ganapathyschool.20m.com/GanapathiSchool.html
S Chitra
|
