Best and Nostalgic Days

Everybody says that our school days are the best days of our life, and my recent visit to the school has made me deeply faithful to believe it.

I studied at SST from 1974 to 1982 as a boarding student. SST, as all of you know, is a Defense training oriented army residential school in Hazaribagh district (now Koderma district) of old south Bihar (now Jharkhand). After 26 years, recently, I visited the school with my family and spent four emotional and nostalgic days (13-17 September 2008). I preferred to stay on the school campus, although the accommodation provided was not at all suited for a family stay.

Click here for Photos of the Founders Day Celebration 2008. Contributed by the Author (Dr. Ajay Kumar,School No. 849, Mithila House, Batch 1974-82)  

My family including my wife and two sons also had the opportunity to experience the life at SST this time. My wife (Rashmi, who is also a researcher and a university teacher) and my elder son (Ritwik, 12 years old) came to recognize many of the positive things that happen in residential Sainik schools. Ritwik, who did not like residential schools earlier for fear of separation from parents, now insists on calling SST a “sunshine”, “dream-activity” and “many-opportunity” based school. My late, ‘semiliterate’ father considered it as a “take-all-care” school. However most of the boys and friends considered it as a too regimented, totalitarian and physical discipline oriented school. They enjoyed its food, landscapes, teachers, studies and games but quite genuinely hated abusive and ragging seniors, PTs and parades.

Positive & Lifelong Contributions

It may be worthwhile considering some of the positive things that happened in our SST. Most of students, who went to SST, learned very well to read, write and calculate; rigorously studied all science subjects, humanities, arts and crafts necessary up to class XII. All of us learned all good manners and etiquettes, had exposures to the outside world, developed articulate and coherent speech and communication abilities. Since it was populated by Hindi-speaking students, our spoken English was burdened with shyness and hesitation. Yet we were highly coherent and systematic in our thinking and expression. We played games, sports and other adventures, which groomed self-reliance skills necessary for living independently in a modern society. We also learned respect for institutions, seniors, elders, countrymen, natural resources with appreciation for science and rationality. We were always trained in a secular way, ignorant of religious and caste affiliations of friends, teachers and staff.

Positive Changes Observed

Many of these trainings and achievements remain the same for the present generation of students. In fact some of things have changed for the good. Today, there is less of punishment and ragging by the seniors, which is a welcome thing. The present environment in school seems to favour flexibility and liberality. There is certain amount of growing democratic attitude between the teachers and students and between senior and junior students. However, the emphasis on physical activities and discipline as compared to emphasis on academics and independent dialogical learning remains high and same as three decades ago. School facilities and infrastructure have grown immensely, and there is huge new academic and administrative complex, five storied hostel, and a mega capacity dining hall for 1200 people, probably make SST the largest residential school in India. New laboratories and computer centers are marks of pride for the students. However, the teacher’s residences are housed in the same, old, dingy red-building quarters. The old academic complex built by Col. P.S. Satsangi has been turned into junior residential (K.G.) school.

Negative Changes Observed

Some of the things appear to have changed for the worse. The social capital or community life, which earlier was enjoyed by the teachers and students alike, appears to be withering now. Quality of food has definitely gone down in large proportions. The mouth watering ‘rajmas’, ‘choles’, ‘buns’, ‘breads’, ‘butters’, the ‘eggs’, the ‘dosas’, the ‘porridge’, the ‘meats’ and ‘chickens’ and ‘bara-khanas’ are no more the same as they used to be in 1970s. Some of these are altogether now missing on the menu while others are served less frequently.

The Foundation Day

The Foundation day Celebration (16 September) was a great event organized by the teachers and students. There were usual athletic events for the finals, horse racing, march pasts, football match between old students and Principal’s XI, inaugural address by the Headmaster (the Principal was absent), and a unique, highly fascinating and entertaining cultural programme put up by the KG and SST students. The cultural programme was far better than previous years as it combined originality and innovation in all the performances at stage. The art, craft and science exhibitions were far better than that of our own times.Apparently, the authorities concerned themselves less to honour the dedicated service of most teachers and employees. They failed to honour many of their own resourceful old boys and their services for enlightening the students. On the Foundation Day, it appeared that they were involved in the celebrations only physically, as a token and ritual event. None of these authorities took any initiative to interact with the old boys. They did little to invite the families and involve the old students in an interactive and participatory manner to share their experiences. Nevertheless, most old students and teachers who are attached emotionally with SST wanted to help the present lot of students by sharing their opinion on the type of education necessary to survive in the modern world. In the 1970s and 80s, when we lived and studied at SST, it was a missionary call to all students to serve the country by joining the defense services, although only about 5-25% of students joined these services. Remaining 75-95% went to join the civil sector services including research and development. Unfortunately, since the civil world is not so civil or organized, many students had to “unlearn” the things that they had learnt at the school. In a research and innovative professional world, they always found it difficult to question the authorities due to heightened sense of respect and submission. Yet they were able to cope with the world outside the Defense services because India still offered a traditional and submissive workplace or environment until 1990s. But in the 21^st century, times have changed.

Needs of 21^st Century Schools

The 21^st century schooling demands that schools become facilitators in gate-jumping, instead of being gatekeepers of the job market in order make India a learning and innovative society. The traditional education system made the schools as the gatekeeper. As a gatekeeper, it prescribed to students what to learn, when to learn, how to learn, and whom to serve. It was completely focused on top-down teaching and training method. In the gate-jumping facilitator role, the 21^st century schools focus on learning in a more flexible and innovative environment based on learner-centric approaches or methods. When the focus is less on the ‘content of learning’ but on the ‘processes of learning’, the question of where, when, what, who, and even why are quite different. Gate-jumping facilitating schools of 21^st century focus mainly on dialogical learning skills and cognitive processes and use all interactional means and technologies including the computers, internet, projects, group discussions, peer teaching, etc. to make that happen. They focus less on forced physical discipline and emphasize learnt cognitive, moral and psychological discipline. Most people's impression of a Sainik School from the old times is a place where the students are treated as cadets who are always on the run, parading in troupes. They are known less by their names and more by their school numbers, uniformly sized into ‘Khaki Uniforms’ and ‘rounded hair-cuts’. The ‘individual ‘self’ gets transformed into a regimented school number. They are treated more as cadets or young soldiers rather than as pupils who are in constant fear of punishments and lack of freedom as they are never let out. They have to work 15-16 hours a day all throughout the week, month and year. Well, in the past these were considered legitimate and necessary for physical disciplining of the cadets and inculcating a sense of soldier-ship in them. Only being a soldier, one could serve his country. However, the 21^st century India offers hundred of new professions, where one could give his services to the nation and make it great and superpower.In the 21^st century, modern schooling does not require ‘soldier-kind’ of physical discipline at all. Gone are the days of old warfare, where physical discipline alone mattered. Modern warfare’s are technology and intelligence savvy requiring diplomatic, cultural and economic domination. 21^st century schools now are supposed to offer flexible, liberal and humanistic environment not dictated by monologues and didactic commands but by rational introspection, self-motivation, creative urge and cognitive discipline based on each students’ aspirations. Physical activities are supposed to be ideally more time consuming. Hence the need is to make investments in physical discipline minimal. Self-discipline is supposed to foster creative thinking with precision in communicative competence for various contexts.It's true that many students, parents and teachers do not like boarding schools because of their ritualistic, dry physical discipline. However, if schools are focused more on cognitive, psychological and moral discipline rather than on physical discipline, which promote an environment of creativity in thought and expression and freedom without fear, students find it an enriching experience and great fun. Apart from the lessons and classroom activities, such creative schools leave students pretty much to their own devices and motivation, so long as they do not blow up the science block, or do some similar mischief. Emphatically, there are rules related to smoking, alcoholism, sexual acts, ragging, violence, disrespect, punctuality, cleanliness, etc, which every school needs to adopt. But students should be encouraged to adopt and cultivate such values on their own as soon as the better. 21^st century schools allow their students to love the fact that they can get away from home (specifically, their parents), and live with people of their own age, under minimal supervision of teachers and housemasters.As for the teachers, again 21st century school teachers are friendly and they all are expected to be dialogical, caring, critical, supportive, sensitive, sensible and reasonable. In fact now emotional well-being along with rational cognitive development is equally emphasized. However, one warning is that 21^st century boarding school would be very much what students make of it. If students go there determined to have a bad time and not get on with new kinds of learning, then guess what: they will have a bad time and won't get on with anything in life. If, on the other hand, they are willing to make an effort, to study dialogically and critically and get on with fellow students and teachers, they will find out how rewarding and enjoyable life at a boarding school can be. The rules/traits or virtues of survival at 21^st century boarding schools

1. Most important survival mechanism is the sense of humour, sense of time and sense self-worth. If you can see the funny and bright side of yourself, then boarding school is for you.

2. Another virtue is curiosity and tolerance for critical engagement. If you are curious at every step and can tolerate being relentlessly and critically interrogated by your teachers and friends in every interaction, then pack your bags and join a boarding school immediately.

3. You need to be dialogical and communicatively competent in all contexts and develop group trust and social capital.

4. The art of begging and seeking out more must also be practiced if you wish to be nourished at all during your stay with boarding school's friendly "loco-parentis".

5. Schooling is not about learning in physical comforts like air-conditioners and mattresses. You must also posses the uncommon ability of being rough and tough, e.g. able to sleep on a bed which would probably be better off without the mattress and study in a classroom without air conditioners.

6. You need to be self-dependent and self-directed. Remember that independence does not mean to be arrogantly snobbish or dismissive of others but as with everything there is mutual dependence of human beings throughout life.   

Contributed By – Dr. Ajay Kumar (PhD, London)School No. 849, Mithila House, Batch 1974-82Associate Professor & Consultant (Development Education)Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi 110067Email. This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it