"Oodikkoda Ooadikko" the boy ahead of me just shouted. (Run man run in Malayalam). I ran the fastest run in my life. This was when I was in the 8th standard studying in Govt Boys High School, Thalayolaparambu - a small town in between Vaikkom and Ettumanoor the two towns where Shiva temples are famous, devotees stop at these two temples to pray enroute to Sabarimala.
Why all this athletic discussion. I will come to that later. The reason why I remembered my school is because of the news today in Times of India about Arya Vidya Bhavan, kannada medium school started 104 years back was survived shut down due to High court stay. It seems there are no enough students in that school which is located at Gandhinagar, prime city center. So authorities were planning to shut it down!
My school was similar but different. First of all I studied in those days no tv, no internet, no mobile, no pizza or burger or even coke. The teachers were sincere. We had Karunakaran sir, who used to go through first para of each history chapter and used to explain us many events in India that were not written in the book, he used to say "you can read those any way from the book". We had Joseph sir who used to catch frogs from paddy field near his house to teach us in biology lab. We had Viswan sir who unfortunately had a drinking habit but never used to fail in completing all portions in time sincerely by taking classes even on weekends
We had many more capable and sincere teachers.
But we never had many sincere students. Tuesdays and Fridays hardly a few people will attend school as they were market days at Thalayolaparambu. They used to go to assist their parents. We had student strikes every other day as politics was so prevelant even in schools. It was during one such strike I just casually joined the gang which marched to the girls high school a km away to make them also closed for the day where my sister was also studying ! When we reached near the girls high school somebody in the front spotted a police vehicle at a good distance. He is the one who shouted "Oodikkoda Oodikko". I took the nearby narrow country road and hid behind a tree 500 mtrs away from main road. Later we all had a hearty laugh when the vehicle went past at high speed - which might have been on the way to attend another similar emergency !
When we were in 10th standard there were no strikes as it was banned due to emergency declared by the centre. Still we had just 25% pass with a few first classes. Remember those dedicated teachers slogged for those few students who really wanted to study.
Now coming back to Arya Vidya Bhavan. I am sure there would be teachers equal or better than my old teachers. With little bit of focus the school infrastructure can be brought to some reasonable shape. I am pretty sure 25% or even more of all the students that are poor and coming for free education there can study better than me. For a while I thought of myself and my school days when I heard of this episode.
The scene is no different in many government schools. Just because this is in prime real estate area and was about to close down it got media attention. All these schools need much more attention from government. For govt RTE is not right to education but "reason to elevate" these schools.
I am not saying we can send our kids to these schools in current situation. I havent done it my self. If these schools reach that level of standard probably many middle income people will have a better choice than surrendering to the current pvt school mafia and looting.
It would take time. Mean while you can spend some quality time with your children to explain some of the old stories, incidents which have moral values which are not there or ignored in the current highly competitive curriculam. FBing and Tweetering is good to have. But not knowing our old value systems is no good.
Why all this athletic discussion. I will come to that later. The reason why I remembered my school is because of the news today in Times of India about Arya Vidya Bhavan, kannada medium school started 104 years back was survived shut down due to High court stay. It seems there are no enough students in that school which is located at Gandhinagar, prime city center. So authorities were planning to shut it down!
My school was similar but different. First of all I studied in those days no tv, no internet, no mobile, no pizza or burger or even coke. The teachers were sincere. We had Karunakaran sir, who used to go through first para of each history chapter and used to explain us many events in India that were not written in the book, he used to say "you can read those any way from the book". We had Joseph sir who used to catch frogs from paddy field near his house to teach us in biology lab. We had Viswan sir who unfortunately had a drinking habit but never used to fail in completing all portions in time sincerely by taking classes even on weekends
We had many more capable and sincere teachers.
But we never had many sincere students. Tuesdays and Fridays hardly a few people will attend school as they were market days at Thalayolaparambu. They used to go to assist their parents. We had student strikes every other day as politics was so prevelant even in schools. It was during one such strike I just casually joined the gang which marched to the girls high school a km away to make them also closed for the day where my sister was also studying ! When we reached near the girls high school somebody in the front spotted a police vehicle at a good distance. He is the one who shouted "Oodikkoda Oodikko". I took the nearby narrow country road and hid behind a tree 500 mtrs away from main road. Later we all had a hearty laugh when the vehicle went past at high speed - which might have been on the way to attend another similar emergency !
When we were in 10th standard there were no strikes as it was banned due to emergency declared by the centre. Still we had just 25% pass with a few first classes. Remember those dedicated teachers slogged for those few students who really wanted to study.
Now coming back to Arya Vidya Bhavan. I am sure there would be teachers equal or better than my old teachers. With little bit of focus the school infrastructure can be brought to some reasonable shape. I am pretty sure 25% or even more of all the students that are poor and coming for free education there can study better than me. For a while I thought of myself and my school days when I heard of this episode.
The scene is no different in many government schools. Just because this is in prime real estate area and was about to close down it got media attention. All these schools need much more attention from government. For govt RTE is not right to education but "reason to elevate" these schools.
I am not saying we can send our kids to these schools in current situation. I havent done it my self. If these schools reach that level of standard probably many middle income people will have a better choice than surrendering to the current pvt school mafia and looting.
It would take time. Mean while you can spend some quality time with your children to explain some of the old stories, incidents which have moral values which are not there or ignored in the current highly competitive curriculam. FBing and Tweetering is good to have. But not knowing our old value systems is no good.
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