Back to School

By the unusual threads that form the fabric of our lives, we found ourselves Saturday morning at the Government Model Primary School in Anekal Tuluk, about an hour’s drive south of Bangalore. The invitation to be guests at the school was part of a larger invitation to also attend a village awards ceremony organized by the philanthropic efforts of a small circle of visionaries headed by Sai Prakash. More on the awards ceremony in another blog; now back to school!

We suspect the Government Model Primary School we visited is like many schools in India. The small teaching staff is caring, the children bright-eyed and the educational resources merger. Students attend school six days a week. The Monday through Friday school schedule is 10:30 am to 4:30 pm. On Saturday the schedule shifts from 7:30 am to 11:30 am.

We arrived around 11:00 am as the children were eating their government supplied lunch of rice, dal (lentils), onions, curry, chilies and tomatoes. After meeting the headmaster and the teaching staff, they organized the students for a group photo. Without fail, we have found that a camera acts as a magnet for kids. Once the camera is sighted, kids magically collect in tight circles, act a bit giddy, wait for the shutter snap and then paw the camera for a look at the instantly displayed image.

The teaching staff then motioned us to sit in the “computer lab” comprised of two older model HP and Compaq desktops. There is no Internet access (or telephone) at this rural school. The students showed us with pride their computer skills, making an excellent image of the Indian national flag in Paintbrush and demonstrated their mastery of Kannada grammar from an instructional CD. The students are native Kannada speakers. We were greatly impressed with their ability to work Romanized lettered keyboards and add commentary to their work in English.

Some of the children then sang songs, performed orations and danced for us. We enjoyed their energy-filled performances for 30 minutes. Afterwards, we shook hands with students and exchanged our good names. “My name is Priya. What is your good name?” We then lunched on the same fare provided to the children.

Outside we marveled at the instructional messages painted on the outside walls of the school. There were pictures of plants, animals, the English alphabet and the evolutionary emergence of man. Aside: There is no discussion of intelligent design that we can detect outside the US. The depiction of the solar system was also updated to the highest and latest scientific standards. The heavenly body, formerly known as the Planet Pluto, was scratched out.

Photos of the staff were taken, the nursery school visited and more thanks given for honoring us as guests.

Accompanied by some of the teaching staff, we were then off on the muddy village roads to the awards ceremony organized by Sai, our host for the day.