WALAJABAD: What serves students during the day, turns a haven for anti-socials by night. The Arignar Anna Government Higher Secondary School here has earned the notoriety of being a hub for nefarious activities, including drunken revelry and prostitution after dusk.Incidentally, Uthiramerur MLA Walajabad Ganeshan is also a product of the school, which was built with financial assistance from former Chief Minister and DMK founder C N Annadurai.Assistant headmaster Beemkumar told the MLA, who visited the school on Monday that the first thing school staff did before starting the day was to clear out empty liquor bottles scattered among used condoms in a partly-ruined structure, that was once used as a prayer hall. There is no compound wall on the back side of the school, which is located on a 20-acre-plot. It is said anti-socials gain entry into the premises by crawling through the front gate. According to Sathyamurthy, the acting headmaster, the problems the institution deals with are manifold. A fungus-ridden tap supplies water from an overhead tank that is seldom cleaned. As there are no latrines, students are forced to relieve themselves in the open.Around 150 students of Class X and XI are forced to sit on the floor as there are not enough benches.The benches and desks available for the Plus Two students were donated by another school. There are 500 students studying from Class VI to Plus Two at the school, and the annual fee is `130. The school is starved of funds to meet basic needs like potable drinking water. Further, six vacancies of faculty are yet to be filled and the school achieved a pass percentage of a mere 76 per cent in the last board exams.Ganeshan promised to address some of the issues with his own funds “in the overall interest of education for a school where I once studied.” He ordered the executive officer of the Public Works Department to renovate the school water tank.
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