Monday, February 12, 2007

P4. Mon.12-2-07.

I left school at 4.00 p.m, exactly. Most of the teachers do. We stand in queue at the Principal's office to sign out. The register will be brought out after the last bell and at its sight the queue breaks and the rush follows. The reverse occures in the mornng. Between the signings the happens in one hour periods. Six in all. The fourth one is shorter by a quarter hour. Then there is a lunch and a break. it is tea time around eleven. In between them the bells announced the periods and teachers walked past each other ascending and descending steps, sixteen at a time. Over a hundred in all. Mostly the teachers were middle aged. A good lot were sick. Climbing up and down was the task. So the minimum time for each change over was about five minutes. To settle down took another five, and the process of learning was trimmed. Noone made any study of these issues because much more serious ones like the falling standards of education and constant failures in Mathematics. The first one was for experts and the second was simply inevitable. Everywhere students failed in Maths and Msc(Maths), both working and non working were drawn into tuition business, quite steady and lucrative. Failure in school examinations ensured admissions in tuition centres. And it became so wide spread that everyone believed it is inevitable to fail in Maths. But in board exams, most of them passed. Why? Because of tuitions. Convincing. Of course it takes a long time to make a lie universally convincing. Think of all the Maths teachers! Years after years to fail the little ones at exams to console and encourage them in tuition classes which ultimately led to the bettr organised entrance coaching institutes. Doyans like P.C. thomas, retired with a famed tag of sincirety and efficiency could attract a few thousands which he dealt in batches and prepared them to get descent marks. Many of them were repeaters. They toiled night and day breaking their adolscent brains to seek, to find, to win and not to yield. And they did it.
Must be their persistence. Motivated or compelled to the core. Success became a life and no-life struggle. Life meant the salary, the perks and the price in the marriage market. and all those many training firms like the petty tuition homes did manage in securing marks and seats and huge money. And the few who still followed the past, clinging on to those outdated values like "money is not above the knowledge" and "truth triumphs" etc. stayed contented though not successful. Poor things. I too happened to be one and quite proudly too.

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