Mordana school students get rare chance to take classes for teachers

VELLORE: It is not often that a student gets a chance to take classes for their teachers; but that is exactly what the middle school students did at a panchayat union middle school at Mordana near Gudiyattam on Thursday.

School Headmaster K Sekhar decided to celebrate Children’s Day with a difference and hence, the idea was to make students conduct classes for teachers. As planned, all the six teachers of the school and Sekhar were made to sit in a classroom on Thursday to take lessons from Class 8 students, who taught us both English and Tamil for nearly half an hour.

Asked about the experience, Sekhar said, “The way they handled the subjects using visual aids revealed that they had followed the lessons well. We let only Class 8 students to take class as other children were too young for the task.”

Headmaster Sekhar is always known for undertaking projects with a difference to ensure the attention and attendance of the children. When he was the head of the PU elementary school at Pallikuppam near Agaramcheri in Madanur PU he hit upon the idea of raising a vegetable garden, which was managed by the students and the produce was sold to locals on a regular basis.

“Students maintained accounts and used the proceeds from the sales to purchase chalk boxes and dusters for their classes. On a whole the project was a success and I hope it still continues,” he added.

Sources revealed that such methods were necessary to ensure the daily attendance of the 141 students at the Mordana facility as the area lacks mobile connectivity and town buses. “Though 4 buses ply daily to the village from Gudiyattam they come at odd hours which does not meet school timings and, hence, students are forced to walk 7 km from Sayanagunta on the main road to the school through dense forests where leopard and bear sightings are common,” he said.

Teachers too find it difficult to travel and so I pick them up in my vehicle when I come to the school daily, he added.