PARAVOOR: A year ago, the headmistress of a Government Boys High School, one the oldest schools in the state, embarked on a novel mission - to beautify the compound wall of the school with the help of none other than the talents of the school and funds donated by former students, residents and some auto and taxi drivers.
Soon the wall adorned pictures of Kerala’s own traditional art forms such as ‘ottan thullal’, mohiniyattom, kathakali, theyyam and more. The paintings caught the attention of the media and the public. But the mission stopped midway owing to various reasons, including lack of aid.
Vijayalakshmi, the headmistress, said the idea was born out of her desire to tap the potential of her students and clean up the ugly compound wall. “Those who painted the walls were first-time artists and if given proper training and patronage they could have conducted art exhibitions. They were from economically backward families and not serious about studies or their skills,” she said.
The young artists Abhijit Pradeep, Vysakh M S, Najmal, Vysakh P B and Dhanesh soon vanished into obscurity. The project was one of her efforts to bring the school into the limelight.
The school has a history of over 150 years. Established in 1857 in Paravoor as RV English High School, it was one of the first English schools in Kerala that had students coming even from other districts. The existing building was built in 1905 where the high school functions.
The school had many divisions from A to Z and they had to start more divisions like A1 and A2 to accommodate more students. But slowly it began to lose popularity. It’s state was so deplorable that the government had to adopt it under the ‘Quality Education is Pupil’s Right’ (QEPR) scheme - a programme started by the government in 2006 to 07 for schools that have student strength below 50 and recorded a pass percentage below 33 per cent in the 2006 SSLC Examination.
Under the scheme, the government adopted around 104 schools and equipped them with funding and monitoring.
Ever since, the prospects have turned slightly brighter with the school recording 100 per cent pass with nine students appearing for the examination the following year. Yet, the infrastructure is not up to the mark.
“We lack proper science laboratories,” Vijayalakshmi said. She said the Science, Mathematics and Social Science teachers are forced to teach English and Biology - subjects they are not qualified to teach.
The Higher Secondary School is in full swing with enough backing from the authorities and Parents Teachers Association, she said. ”Even the municipality did not extend a hand when we wanted to whitewash the compound wall. But we decided to move on with our plans with the backing of others. Now, I want to complete our project which is a hard task and requires some support,” she said.