Reminiscences of school life-I

The Place: St Paul’s Institute, New Lamka, Manipur
The Time: July 1993

It was the summer of 1993, just after the summer holidays. I thought it would be just another Physics class, oblivious of how life could spring surprises at you. I was in my VIth standard when this incident happened.

We greeted our Physics teacher, “Good morning sir”, as usual. Before taking class, he distributed our half-yearly examination answer sheets. But mine was not there so I stood up and said, "Excuse me sir, I didn’t get my paper”. To this he replied, “If your paper wasn’t there then you must be absent.” I know for a fact that I was clearly not absent and sat for the paper. So I retorted back, “Sir I wasn’t absent, I sat for the paper. You can check the attendance sheet and my friend here can vouch that I wasn’t absent”, gesturing towards my friend sitting next to me. My friend vouched for my presence. But our teacher was adamant. He insisted that as my paper wasn’t there that means I didn’t sit for the paper. End of discussion. At this a feeling of rage overtook me and I blurted out. “You didn’t check the papers yourself and let your tuition students check them. So my paper might have got lost in the process.” On hearing this he became very angry and started beating me, adding fuel to the fire raging within me. So I said, “You beat me for no fault of mine. I will go to the principal and complain about your misconduct.” He retorted, “Yeah you can go right now”, probably thinking that I would not have the guts to go to the principal.

It so happened that this teacher of ours conducted home tuitions and he let his tuition students check our papers. I came to know of this because one of our classmates’ elder sister took tuition from this teacher and she was the one who checked our papers. So the whole class came to know of our marks (with the exception of me) even before he distributed our papers. At that time I comforted myself that maybe my paper was checked by another person and so my marks were missing from the list.

Coming back to the incident that day, I went to the principal and told him about the incident at class that day-how I was beaten by my teacher for no fault of mine and how our answer sheets were checked by persons other than our teacher. At first the principal did not believe my words but when I spoke out that facts and when he checked the attendance sheet he found out that I was present and indeed I was speaking the truth. He assured me that he would speak to the teacher and told me not to worry.

The next day I was called to the principal’s room. He told me that I had secured 94% in the Physics paper and congratulated me. He said that he had a talk with our teacher and it seemed that he (the Principal ) had given him a good scolding.

After that day, our teacher was never his former self again. Before, he was a cheerful guy who used to crack jokes and laugh a lot. He was a jovial sort of guy. But from that day onwards he was always gloomy and rarely interacted with other teachers. He quitted after a month or so.

I had a feeling that he quitted because of that incident with me. And I sometimes felt uneasy thinking that I was responsible for his quitting his job. But I really didn’t blame myself. Because he was a teacher and he was paid not only to teach but to check our papers. Letting others check our answer sheets was clearly a dereliction of duty on his part which needs to be exposed. Nobody even complained when they clearly know that he wasn’t doing his job but he started beating me for no fault of mine. And that proved to be his nemesis.

Teachers are the builders of the nation and they should serve as examples to the students. It is because of teachers like him who shirk their duty and wanted only personal gains that the conditions of our schools, be it government or private, are so deplorable.