The Victor and the Victorious

In the seventies, in West part of Delhi, emerged a new residential colony called Janakpuri which happened to be another hub for South Indians.  Not being approachable to any of the existing six DTEA schools, the local Tamil community in Janakpuri acquired a land of their own, erected few wooden sheds, and started teaching children in an informal way.  A handful of teachers, not all of them qualified, drawn from the immediate neighbourhood were employed on an ad hoc basis.  The school was however recognized in a few years but was not qualifying to receive government Grant-in-Aid.  There was no infrastructure per se, no administrative staff, no telephone, not even a fence around the school.  Anybody could walk in / out at their free will.  A time came when the school was taken over by the DTEA, at the request of the community in Janakpuri, which turned out to be a unique experiment, as never before had the DTEA taken over an existing school with its attendant problems.  However the philosophy of MEA/DTEA being to serve the Tamil community with their educational needs, the DTEA agreed to take the Janakpuri school under its wings.  Those were the circumstances under which the DTEA Janakpuri school came into existence.

For the DTEA, the first priority was to bring the new school to the Grant-in-Aid status like the other schools.  In order to protect the interests of the 12 existing teachers at Janakpuri, the common seniority rule that existed among all other DTEA schools could not be applied, as endorsed by the Delhi Government.  Instead, the Janakpuri school was given a special status where existing teachers would be retained, while all new vacancies were to be filled by open recruitment only based on merit, and not by transfer from other DTEA schools.  The management was keen on finding the most competent candidate to take charge of this upcoming school, so first and foremost, the DTEA advertised for the position of Head of school, for which any qualified candidate could apply from inside / outside of DTEA.  Your guess is right – I was once again recruited to take up this leadership position in 1981.  This time I was riding my scooter, rain or shine, all the way from Lakshmibai Nagar where I lived, to 20 kms away to a neighbourhood in Janakpuri.  I was the only “outsider” while the staff and students were local residents.

Unlike my previous experiences with Karol Bagh and RK Puram schools where the community welcomed me and accepted me, the circumstances at JKP were rather adverse and unique.  Some “prominent” members of the local Tamil community were not happy with my appointment, as they had perhaps wanted one of their own candidates chosen.  On not achieving that, an environment of hostility and prejudice was built right from the beginning without even giving us a chance to work together.  Unfortunately, some members of the existing staff also joined the campaign against me.  It seemed their only goal was to see that I did not succeed in this new role, thereby hinder the progress of the school.  I could only attribute it to their ignorance of my real standing in the DTEA, or inability to accept that a candidate of their choice was not offered the lead position – one can only speculate.  What I do know is that never before have I seen (or imagined) a section of the community, or teachers as a matter of fact, working against the interests of the school & the children it served.  They were attempting to oust me and prove the DTEA wrong, while I was on a mission to transform the whole school, upgrade it to 12^th grade, and establish it as a model DTEA Senior Secondary School.  What a sad irony!  Regardless, I was determined to prove myself one more time and was confident that with all my experience spanning over 25 years, I would turn things around tactfully and intelligently without antagonizing anyone.  My PR skills were indeed put to a severe test as I had to combat negative forces on a everyday basis.  No other Principal in the history of DTEA had ever faced a challenge like this one.  Full of optimism though, I moved forward relentlessly, prioritizing my jobs on hand.

First I arranged a telephone for the school.  Next was selection of administrative staff for the school office.  Files had to be opened afresh and things organized.  Some 30 – 40 teaching staff had to be recruited for various departments involving a lot of planning and coordinating with the Delhi government.  I was very particular that only meritorious teachers were selected and no compromises were settled for, rather I would leave the position unfilled if I didn’t find the right candidate.  Even class IV staff positions needed to be filled in.  In the midst of all this, I could not afford to neglect instruction to Class X students who would be appearing for the CBSE Board examination in March 1982.  As usual I took to classroom teaching work for Class X amidst other hardships.  That paid a good dividend.  The results spoke for themselves and parents were happy.  In fact, the students were the real “ambassadors” to carry the message home and obviously the parents were becoming increasingly happier by and by, at my taking charge as the Head of school.  Instilling confidence in the minds of existing and new parents was topmost on my agenda.

The DTEA Management being fully aware of the circumstances under which I was placed to head the Janakpuri school, was very supportive of me as I inched up the hill.  Though I would love to mention names, I am restraining myself from doing so, not wanting to leave anyone out inadvertently.  I have enjoyed close and respectable relationships with so many office bearers of the managing committee and so many wonderful parents who have stood by me during my 36 years and I hope they are viewing these articles to exactly know whom I mean.  Unlike the assistance I got from some of the senior teachers at Karol Bagh and RK Puram schools, there was none other than me to guide even the secretarial staff with routine work.  I ended up working 12 hours everyday.  When everyone had gone, I would still be working all alone until 8:00 PM.  Sometimes, the parents who had by then started building a rapport with me, would drop by at the school on their way back from office, at those late hours after spotting my scooter from their chartered buses.

Right from the time of admission, I developed a cordial relationship with the families, particularly the children.  I would interview every child to understand first hand their strengths and weaknesses to be able to provide them with appropriate help during the course of their school years.   The morning assembly time was put to good use by emphasizing on the value of good morals.  I would address the Primary school children separately in Tamil making it endearing for them.  That set the tone of the school practically everyday.  I always encouraged the children to come meet me directly if needed and I insisted that they talked in English with me.  As an administrator, I was strict in enforcing discipline, both at students’ and at teachers’ level, in order to establish dignity and decorum as an educational institution.  At the initial stage, I encountered some resistance as they were not used to conducting themselves formally, but by and by, everyone had to fall in line to meet the expected standards.  The children responded splendidly well to my instructions and it became a joy to see them well behaved and cheerful all the time.  They were absolutely outstanding in their character and conduct.

My next job was to develop the teachers – both existing and new.  The section of existing teachers I mentioned about chose to remain non-cooperative, but I moved on with the rest that were willing to support and grow with the institution.  I started cultivating scores of new teachers that I had recruited.  They were very bright, qualified, and enthusiastic to work with me, some were even fresh from college.  Inspired by my leadership, they gave me their full co-operation, allowing me to groom them into becoming effective classroom teachers.

By now, the parents came to know of my abilities at revolutionizing the upcoming school.  They felt comfortable and came forward individually to interact with me, sometimes sharing their concerns.  They were visibly happy and I could tell they counted on me.  In the periodic PTA meetings, a record number of some 200+ parents would attend just to hear me talk on various topics.  As is usually the case everywhere, there would sometimes be a parent or two who would want to use this forum to ventilate their complaints but I would never let the meetings go out of control.  I made sure everyone’s interests were always protected and things were handled decently.  On one occasion, I was educating the parents on the National Policy of Education which was a lecture that lasted about 1.5 hours that everyone listened to with rapt attention.  At the end, a parent commented, “Sir, this will beat the Finance Minister’s Budget Speech”!

Next, I wanted to improve the infrastructure.  The parents were always ready to offer any help (including financial assistance) and I got the PTA to augment resources in this direction.  I gave top priority to raising a boundary wall to the school as it was absolutely essential.  I came up with an idea of BBC – Buy a Brick Campaign.  All the children were asked to sell coupons in their neighbourhood @ Re 1/ brick.  The children who made record sales were given prizes as incentive.  This was a tremendous success, and in no time, the school had a beautiful boundary wall with iron gates.  The PTA took the cue from here and started canvassing for a humongous fund collection drive for the completion of the school building.  It goes to the credit of the parents who managed to get a sizeable donation (of Rs One Lakh) from the British High Commission towards the corpus of the building fund.  Seeing the enthusiasm and drive of the community, the DTEA too came forward with a substantial share of their contribution and further took the responsibility of undertaking the building work.  It took about a year to complete the building.  Side by side, the school had to function normally amidst inevitable dislocations all round.  As Principal, I had to supervise the building work also round the clock, in addition to my already overloaded work schedule.  How can I forget those stressful days! 

With a beautiful building in place, my next project was to develop the library, the playfield and the laboratories so as to get ready for upgrading the school to senior secondary level.  The Board results at class X had been consistently good, the school had made an image for itself, the parents were extraordinarily cooperative and my leadership was established beyond doubt.  It was decided to open class XI with all the streams – science, commerce and humanities – at one go, for the first time in the history of DTEA!  All other schools had been developed progressively depending upon the facilities available.  Lots of formalities needed to be observed to open +2 level classes and to receive Grant-in-Aid from the government.  When everything was ready from our side for the take-off, the Delhi Administration put a spoke in the wheel, informing us that they could only approve the opening of +2 classes but would not be able to provide grant owing to paucity of funds.  What a blow!  We were in a tight spot, nevertheless, we took the plunge and opened all 3 streams in class XI.  The next challenge was about recruiting senior level teachers but who would pay them?  For class XI, we managed with some of the existing staff and recruiting some new teachers on condition that they would be paid ad hoc salary (some fixed amount) till we started getting grant.  But it became really difficult next year when class XII came into being, especially for the Science subjects.  It was truly a testing time for my leadership and I could sense the grim reality.  At that time, four people came forward offering their professional services free of cost in the interest of the community and the DTEA should always be indebted to them for their timely voluntary service.  They are: (1) Prof. S. Ramamrutham, an author, a free-lance engineer,  and former Vice -President of DTEA, for Physics; (2) Dr. J. Krishnamurthi, a parent & senior lecturer in the PG DAV College, for Mathematics; (3) Dr. Meena Natarajan (my daughter), an alumni of MEA & senior lecturer in the Kirorimal College, for Chemistry, and (4) Dr. Neeraja Chopra, a former student of my daughter’s & Scientist at DRDO, for Biochemistry, who came all the way from South Delhi to teach at the JKP school.  The first batch of class XII students was thus finally sent for the Board exam and the children proved themselves victorious bringing excellent results.  Subsequently we started getting the Grant-in-Aid for the +2 classes and everything was in place from then on.

Alongside this saga, based on my services as a resource person for training English teachers from all over Delhi and conferment of the Best English Teacher award, the CBSE nominated me as a Paper-Setter for Board examinations.  So I got involved in that confidential work which was an additional responsibility and honour.  Year after year after year, my paper would get selected for release by the CBSE confidential committee.  My school would be used for workshops by CBSE, so that brought an added benefit to our teachers and students.  The Board also sent me on weekends to various cities like Chennai, Bangalore, Jaipur, Guwahati etc to train prospective examiners in evaluating answer books of final year students.  After the exams, all answer books from the entire country would come to me for central evaluation in Delhi for which hundreds of senior teachers from various schools were deputed.  As Paper setter & Head Examiner, I was responsible for the publication of results in my subject at All India level.  The CBSE further selected me to serve on the Courses Committee for two terms where policy decisions were taken.  There was never a time I was not busy.  I don’t recall having taken a single day’s casual leave in my entire 10 years at the JKP school.

I, for one, did not believe in declaring a child “failed” at the end of the academic year.  To me, it is a sad reflection on the school if a child is not motivated even to merely scrape through the annual exam.  Every parent admits his ward in the school in absolute trust that the child’s interests would be taken care of by the school.  At the end of 10 years schooling, how can the child not pass the public exam?  That was unacceptable to me.  I instilled such ideas in the minds of teachers repeatedly and gave them the concept of “crash courses” to help every child pass the exam.  By constantly motivating the teachers and guiding them at every stage on how to take care of backward children in particular, I succeeded in producing 100% results in Board examinations continuously for a number of years, a record of sorts!.  The Delhi Government awarded a trophy and a letter of commendation to me in recognition of the spectacular results year after year.  The performance of the JKP school was the best among all DTEA schools with the sincere efforts put up by the teachers and hard work of the students.  We became the envy of everyone in DTEA circles!  The DTEA, in recognition of my services to the community, conferred on me, the DTEA Diamond Jubilee Award in a special function.

While I remained a role model to other teachers, I expected them, on their part, to be role models for the innocent children under their care.  I would make sure no child is humiliated under any circumstances, be it corporal punishment or otherwise.  I believed the teachers should bestow parental affection on the children and be a Guide rather than an Instructor.  Quite a number of teachers working with me were inspired by what I preached and practiced, and have benefited in the long run.  I truly believed in the pledge that I framed -

This is my school

Make me proud of it

Make it proud of me

Each morning in the assembly, the Head Boy/Girl administered the pledge to the fellow students, which proved very efficacious.  Every student passing out of Janakpuri school cannot ever forget the essence of this pledge.

After completing 10 years at the JKP school and not having taken a break, I went to visit my children in USA during the summer holidays of 1991 when I brought back souvenirs for the staff & children – pens for all the staff, and pencils for the 300+ Primary department kids.  On my return, I went to each classroom and distributed the ‘Made in USA’ pencils personally to each child.  What a pleasure it was to see the little ones so happy!  By the way, long after my retirement, a student called on me to inform me that he had just then passed class XII exam and wanted my blessings again.  He added that he still remembered the occasion when I gave him “that” pencil personally long ago, and he’s still keeping it safely.  How touching indeed!

By the way, since the Janakpuri school had come of age and become, in a period of 10 years, a full-fledged senior secondary school with adequate infrastructure and full complement of staff numbering over 50, with a track record of excellent Board results, the DTEA brought the school at par with other 6 senior secondary schools with respect to common seniority.  This completed the circle and everybody’s interest was fully protected thereon.

In September of 1991, I took a major decision to take voluntary retirement from service after discussing with my children who wanted me to visit them more often.  The school was functioning smoothly and things had been streamlined.  I had done my job!!  I served a notice to the DTEA Management to relieve me of my responsibilities by the end of that academic year.  It was nice of them to have agreed to my request and processed all my benefits intact.  I sent by postal mail, a personal letter signed by me, to each individual parent of the school, by way of personally taking farewell in 1992.  The teachers have visited me since then, on Teachers’ Day, year after year until this day, to pay their respects and share fond memories that I appreciate so much.  Many, many students right from the 1950’s to 1990’s have always met me with great regards and affection.  It is so gratifying that the students have reached good positions in life and love their alma mater from the bottom of their hearts.

I truly believe, every child has the potential to make a difference in this world and it is the solemn duty of the school to shape the child along right lines, according to their abilities, without prejudice.  It is every child’s right to grow in a healthy environment during his/her formative years.  To that end, I have done my utmost during my tenure with MEA/DTEA in different roles as assigned by the Management.  Mine is a professional life fully lived, to my utmost satisfaction, and for the noble cause of education.  I cherish every moment of it even today.  Over the years, the original flavour of the erstwhile MEA might have started undergoing a metamorphosis, and I believe, given the right leadership, any evolutionary change can be galvanized towards the victory of the common good.  I wish Good Luck to all the alumni wherever they are and my sincere thanks are due to them without whom my purpose of teaching would not have been fulfilled.  I am thankful to Kamesh – an alumnus of DTEA, also a friend and classmate of my daughter – for his interest and initiative in asking me to write about my experiences with the MEA/DTEA, perhaps the first of its kind.  Adieu!!

< for my response to comments, please check the tab Author’s Response >