COIMBATORE: Some educational institutions in Coimbatore seem to have taken the national pledge in its true letter and spirit. For, students in at least three schools and a college in the city address their teachers only as Akka (older sister) and Anna (older brother) instead of ‘Sir’ or ‘Madam’.
So, each time the male teachers take the roll call, the students stand up and scream: ‘Present Anna’. And the women teachers are greeted with a ‘Good morning, Akka.”
The gesture isn’t restricted to the students alone. Even the principal, the teachers and the non-teaching staff address each other in this way.
Classmates too don’t take names and everyone on campus is an Anna or an Akka, irrespective of his/her age.
This “Indian culture” is a striking feature at the N G R Senior Secondary School, the Thavathiru Santhalinga Adigalar Higher Secondary School and the Ramakrishna group of institutions.
“It strengthens the student-teacher-principal bonding, as these are endearing terms and cut out the formality of sirs and madams,” says G Sadasivan, the 43-year-old popular Anna and principal of N G R School. “Parents and teachers are assured (of the students’ conduct), and students feel at home,” he adds.
This practice has been in vogue at the school since its inception in 1959 by freedom fighter N G Ramasamy.
R Devaraj, the principal Anna of the Thavathiru Santhalinga Adigalar School — a government-aided institution — in fact, contends that the tradition helps curb incidences of adolescence-related infatuation or “misbehaviour” among classmates.
Vijaykumar, an alumnus of the Ramakrishna group of institutions, says the practice is still ingrained in him.
(With inputs from J Santhosh)