NOSTALGIC MEMORIES OF 8TH STANDARD0
Dear friends, I read with interest a recentforwarding about the tough 8th standard examination in US and itsstandards and once it was a base for employments in India, by member SriVenkita Raman, Perinthalmanna. With higher and not affordabletuition fee, distance to the institution, problems in domestic front, many have completed theireducation with 8th class. This was probably the period of my latefather. He was 8thclass failed in one subject for 5 marks. He used to say- If he would havepassed, he would have been a primary section teacher. His two class mates were teachersin the primary school. One was Sri Panaveli Paramu Pillai and another SriGovinda Pillai. Sri Govinda pillai’s wife karthyayani amma was my teacher for 3rdclass. Paramu Pillai’s third son was Sreedharan nair my class mate till highschool. In SSLC he had failed in two subjects, and he became my junior. My late eldest brother (Nextgeneration) had gone for preparatory class to a high school at Adoor about 10KMs by walk from our place!! They would start as early as 7 AM to reach theschool in time, I am told. Even when I passed SSLC in 1960, many of my friends discontinued theirstudies- Tuition fee in college was a big amount on those days. It waspossible to write many competitive examinations and to get a job with SSLC andbecome a bread winner. Type writing and short hand knowledge gave moreopportunities. A girl with SSLC passed was seen as high on those days.Government jobs were possible for even those with 50% marks in the SSLC. First class passing wasconsidered special. Even I too would have been inthat group. Some how my father’s desire to send one son to college and a fewelders compulsion and above all possibility of a scholarship later fromTravancore Devaswam board helped me to pass the Bsc. This was possible because the college was locallyavailable, though constructions were still going on while I was in college. Even when I passed BSc, MSc becamea dream because the local college was a graduate level institution. For postgraduation I had to come to Trivandrum and stay though admission was possiblein MG College at Trivandrum. It was not fees, not the continuing thescholarship but hostel stay became the problem without any solutions to meet itout. My father was retiring in that year. My close friend Varadarajan alongwith me in BSc Physics, next year when post graduation came for English inlocal college, joined and became a LECTURER IN ENGLISH there. For me, fatherretiring in that year as said, job was most important… Special note here- Duringvacations I too joined typewriting and Pits man’s shorthand. The type writingknowledge help me NOW to compose postings better!! For teaching in primary classes 8thclass was sufficient. My first standard teacher was One Karthyayani amma, an 8thclass passed. SSLC with TTC was sufficient for middle school classes on thosedays. A nostalgic look in to middleschool experiences. Forsome elders it could be refreshing their nostalgic experiences.Surely for many youngsters – boring. For those requiring informationnothing in it. They can use DELETE button. Sincerely, Gopala Krishnan 29-6-2013. Reposted on 27-2-2021 after editing and updating. R. Gopala Krishnan 1. Which school- Government or NSS? Since my father was working inGovernment middle school, the option was for it after primary class.Interesting reason- If food preparation was not complete my father could bring the choattu pathram.(Vessel withfood) Choattupathram had a thattu attop which may take thoran, mezhukku puratti and pickles if any. Bottom will betaking ration rice cookedand butter milk at one side and saambar/Pulinkarion other side. On Fridays the school used tostart at 9.30 AM and interval was between 12 30 to 2 PM. This was to enableprayers for Muslim teachers.On those days most of us used to walk 3 KM to ourresidence 2. Bench arrangement. Still I do not get the reason,primary class 1 and 2 had bench without back. The session for the day would end at 12.30 PM. In the after noon class 1will become class 3 and class 2 will become class 4. If I recollect for writing facility many ofus used to sit on the floor keeping the slate rather than in the bench.Probably training children to sit erect, this was done. Update- Now other than Government schools, all schools have table and chair separatelywith good spacing, all modern facilities in class room, and class rooms are airconditioned. While admitting my grand sons to Maharshi international school near Sri Perambadur,about 7 years back I just peeped in to class rooms and got astonished seeingthe arrangements in class rooms. 3. Ancham classil slate illa (Fifth class has no slate) Fifth class had both sessions andonly note books. No slate and slate pencil. If I recollect the benches had supportfor back (Charubench). After 5th class TC wasobtained and I was admitted in middleschool. 4. Admissionu kuttiyae konduvaranam (For admission student had to bebrought) I do recollect the occasion.Normally during admission the father/ mother/ guardian is given a seat duringadmission before the headmaster. How does my father would take a seat before the headmistress(at thattime headmistress) while he was working as peon in that school? He started arranging papers andfiles after giving filled up admission form with a smile. His seat was a SMALLCHAIR at the back of the room, where despatching and receiving papers are kept.After admission I left school to home and father continued works. 5. 6th class English study was started in 6thclass. There was one Mr. Raghavan Pillaifor teaching English. I recollect on those days I used to read apple as A- P-P- L- E as letters. I could not pronounce it as apple reading together. In the middle school we hadprinted question paper for examination. Answer paper and a clip board to keep/hold it had to be brought by students. 6. Headmistress Probably the only graduate with BEd.training could be the head mistress/ Head master in the middle school. They mostly used to take Englishsubject. In the high school too I am taught by the headmaster English text book.Probably he used to refer guide and teach, or those who purchased guideobserved he was teaching with guide, he was called “Guide Krishna Pillai”. 7. Eattam standaril common pareeksha. (Eight standards has common examination) The Question paper for commonexamination was white and slightlylarge. It was prepared and printed by special arrangements and kept in AEO office. On the previous day of theexamination, the sealed packet would bebrought by Headmaster to the school. Examination fee had to be paid for 8th standard. Answer paperwas given from the school. Afterexamination, the answer papers arranged would go to AEO office the same day in sealed cover.The AEO office would send it to some specific school and designated specificteacher used to value the answer paper. Like a computer the AEO officehad these records. All valuation, tabulation of marks was handled from AEOoffice. Result sheet in printed paper with hand written names were send torespective schools. This was from memory the method of common examination. 8. Samitae montae perillallo? (Name of your son is not in the passedlist) While the 8th standardresult came, it was in two pages for passed and one page separately for failed.Passed and failed would be on the title marked with BLUE AND RED INKrespectively. Result sheet would be opened by the head master only. The headmaster went through. As he thought the names were arranged with mark. My namewas not in the first page. He just toldmy father my name was not in the firstpage. One minute he could not believe, but he himself went through and did notfind. One moment he got per flexed . In that year the top three positions of the school were entered in theSECOND PAGE BOTTOM instead of 1st page top. On seeing it he feltrelieved. When I went to school, my girl class mate reached earlier told- Your name is 2nd page bottomin the Top position with an addition- my name is below yours ) I read the bottom names Top positions. 1- Surendra varma 87% 2. Gopala Krishnan 85% 3. Kunju kunjamma 83%. I do not know what happened afterwards to Kunju kunjamma since she joined the High school at Karakkad( anothernearby school) and later. Surendra varma was the topper always, later in SSLCalso of the school. He took English as Subject in college and retired asProfessor of English from Government College Mandya. His post graduation wasfrom Trivandrum. Update- He is with his daughter at Poonae now. I talked to him a monthback. He is elder to Sasidhara Varma appearing as representative ofPandalam Palace . 9. Ennalum Surendran thannae munnil ( Always Surendra varma is first) The local people used to say- no other student can excel Surendra varma.A true fact. Whether there were certificateson passing 8th standard or only TC I am not able torecollect now. I was admitted for High school studies in the local NSS High school. When I was in SSLC there was new 10thstandard and old 11th standard. I was in the second group loosingone year. I am also not able to recollect when class became standard- 7thclass to 7th standard. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/thatha_patty/84891958.373334.1614415571568%40mail.yahoo.com.
