[Reader-list] Children oppose move to close down schools

[T Peter]

Children oppose move to close down schools

Date:17/04/2010 URL:
http://www.thehindu.com/2010/04/17/stories/2010041762440300.htm

Special Correspondent

Thiruvananthapuram: On Friday, the Secretariat gates witnessed an
agitation of a different kind. The shrill shouts of scores of
schoolchildren rent the air.

Children from the coastal belt of the city staged a dharna in protest
against the alleged government move to close down schools in the
coastal areas. The agitation was organised by Theeradesa Balavedi, the
children's wing of the Kerala Swathantra Matsya Thozhilali Federation
(KSMTF).

KSMTF president T. Peter, who inaugurated the stir, urged the
government to improve basic facilities in the coastal schools. The
children raised slogans demanding fisheries residential schools for
girls in all coastal districts in the State. They called upon the
government to drop the move to close down schools.

KSMTF district secretary Anto Elias, Balavedi activists Drisya
Varghese, Renju Robin, Anna Merlin, Vijin Francis and Karuna Fernandez
and KSMTF leaders Pushparani Leen, Merina Thomas and Jeremy Roy also
addressed the dharna.

The children also presented a street play titled ‘Pallikoodam'.

http://www.keralafishworkers.org