Turning formal rural education into reality

CHENNAI: Late evenings, on the road leading to the twin villages of Pappanchatram and Palanjur, the faint tinkle of a bicycle can be heard. It's the headmaster of the St. John's Rural High School doing his rounds, making sure that his pupils have their textbooks propped on their laps.
Ever since the St. John's Rural High School was set up eight years back solely for children from these two villages, teachers have been taking a personal interest in their education.From resorting to phonetics to mime to role-play, they have been leaving no stone unturned to initiate first-generation learners and students from under-privileged backgrounds to the rigours of a formal school.
"At times, I even train my students on how to use a toilet and on basic cleanliness like cutting nails. Moreover, since most of the students are first-generation learners, I've to constantly interact with parents, reminding them that they have to wake their children early for school and make sure that their wards are regular on homework," says headmaster , R Ravichandran.
But none of the efforts have gone waste. While each of this year's tenth board examinees secured a first class, the school topper, S Gomathi scored 452/ 500. Success stories such as these have in fact inspired many siblings to quit their earlier schools to join the St. John's rural school. "My elder sister was the school topper last year, scoring 457/500," says S Sowbhagya. "Ever since I came to hear how well she was doing at this school, I wanted to join it too," she adds.
In less than a decade, the thatched-roofed primary school has grown into a double-storied high school with 465 students on its 12,000 square foot campus that is situated at the entrance of the St. John's International Residential High School (SJIRS) in Palanjur, (six kilometres from Poonamallee).
"When we initially set up this school, the villagers viewed it with suspicion," says Dr R Kishore Kumar, senior principal, SJIRS. "It took us a while to convince them to send their children to our free school," he adds with a smile.
Earlier, children from these villages used to study at local panchayat schools. Slowly, word of the English-medium school, run free of cost, spread. While English is the medium of instruction from LKG to V standard, there are English and Tamil-medium sections, one each, from VI to X standard.
Apart from supplying three sets of uniform, books, stationery and a pair of footwear to each student for free, the SJIRS- funded school also provides free mid-day meals. While tamarind, lemon or tomato rice with a curry forms the core diet, an egg a week is also included in the diet.
Though this self-financed, private school has the wherewithal and infrastructure to teach and admit students into their institution, the school is yet to receive recognition from the directorate of school education. "As a result, we are forced to send our class 10 students as private candidates. And such students, upon finishing their 10th standard, find it difficult to get admission into other schools for 11th and 12th standard," says Dr Kumar.
The delay in getting the required affiliation has, however, not thwarted any of the plans that the headmaster has made for this school. "I am a first-generation learner myself, and if I could become a headmaster of a school, then there is no limit to what these kids can achieve. I have taken it up as a challenge to see that each of them get an education," says Ravichandran.