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| Naduveettil Balakrishnan, Kannanchery L.P.School, Kozhikode |
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When Naduveettil Balakrishnan, the former student of 1958 returned to Kannanchery L.P.School, Kozhikode as headmaster in 1998, the school was on the verge of closure. The 76-student school needed at least another 24 more if his alma mater was not to be closed once and for all.
It was then that he took up the challenge in earnest. He knew the main weakness of the school was the lack of high school classes. He obtained an assurance from the Ramakrishna Mission High School that 30 students passing out of Kannanchery L.P.School will be given admission there. He then displayed this information on a board in front of the school. The rest was an onrush of students.
If in 1998 student strength was 76, today the total is 327. But it isn’t in numbers alone that he has excelled. Balakrishnan won the best teacher award of the State Government in 2000 mainly for the innovative teaching methods he adopted in the school.
During Ramadan / Sabarimala Mandala period, he experiments with the gurukula style of teaching the alphabet to 1st standard students. They sit on the ground and write the alphabets on the sand as he pronounces them aloud. By the end of the holy period, the students come back to the classroom, full of confidence with the newly acquired skills.
He led the students to the police station, jail and court to instill in them a sense of justice and fair play. Similarly he taught them religious harmony by taking the young ones to temples and mosques. And he invited and honoured the religious heads who permitted such visits.
Thus the vision of Balakrishnan to bring up the students through activity-oriented learning is now finding more and more takers among parents of Kannanchery.
Balakrishnan instructing the students to write on sand
Courtesy: R.S.Santhosh Kumar (text), P.N.Sreevalsan (photo), Sree, Malayala Manorama, January 6, 2002
Contributed by: Administrator
