KUMBAKONAM, JULY 18. Two whole days after a fire killed 90 children in a school here, new evidence suggests that the casualties were high because school authorities anticipating an inspection by the school inspector, sent children upstairs to fudge the class strength in the Tamil-medium section.
The fudging of attendance registers became necessary as the grants-in-aid to aided schools is tied to the number of students in the Tamil medium section. Parents and surviving students today said in Sri Krishna School, it was customary to send students from the English-medium section (located on the ground floor) to the Tamil section on the first floor (which caught fire) during official inspection. ``They were sent with instructions to answer names in the Tamil register and warned not to give their real names,’’ said Chandrasekhar, father of Amirtha Vinci, a sandard IV student. That is how Jennifer became Mahalaskhmi and Vishnu answered for Sankaran. ``The teacher told us, `The AEO is coming. Don’t tell him your real name even if he asks you questions.’ We do this regularly,’’ Jennifer, a primary school student, said matter-of-factly.
The number of children from the standard IV English medium class could be between four and seven. The children are not very clear about how many went up, but as Vishnu said, ``From all classes in the English medium, children are being sent up.’’ Parimala, an aunt of R. Maran who was among the first to run out of the burning building, said the boy was asked to remove his belt and badge before he was sent upstairs with another name. ``The English section children wear belts and badges, but the Tamil ones don’t. That is why they asked the kids to remove the belts and badges before they went up to make the duplication seem authentic.’’
``At least two of my daughter’s classmates who were sent up died in the fire,’’ Mr.Chandrasekhar said. Asked if an inspection was scheduled in the school during the day and if duplication was being practised, the District Collector, J. Radhakrishnan, said ``we are not sure how much of it is true. There is a lot of speculation going on and emotions are running high. The administration is collecting all the information and will verify all claims as soon as possible.’’