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THE OTHER CLASS STRUGGLE
The New Indian Express Tirunelveli
|July 19, 2025
HERE does teaching end and learning begin? Or should that be the other way around? I asked myself these profound questions last week as news arrived from Kerala of a small step with revolutionary intent.
HERE does teaching end and learning begin? Or should that be the other way around? I asked myself these profound questions last week as news arrived from Kerala of a small step with revolutionary intent. Ramavilasom Vocational Higher Secondary School at Valakom decided to remove the concept of 'backbenchers' by introducing a circular seating arrangement in classrooms.
Human beings are quite inertial—it takes some fresh inspiration to turn things around. As it happens, the south Kerala school was jolted by a Malayalam movie, Sthanarthi Sreekuttan, to do away with traditional rows of benches and bring in single rows along the four walls of a classroom where every kid looks like a side-bencher.
The movie's ideas have also crossed borders. While a Punjab school jumped eagerly on the idea, a circular from the education department in Tamil Nadu ran into rough weather. Tamil Nadu has insisted on implementing a somewhat semi-circular arrangement resembling the Tamil letter pa as a symbol of open minds after some social media protests on the ground that it was impractical.
This story is from the July 19, 2025 edition of The New Indian Express Tirunelveli.
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