HISTORY OF AYYAPPAN EZHUTHACHAN AIDED UPPER PRIMARY BASIC SCHOOL

HISTORY OF AYYAPPAN EZHUTHACHAN AIDED UPPER PRIMARY BASIC SCHOOL Dr.BAIJU K.NATH Assistant Professor Dept. of Educaion, University of Calicut baijueducation@gmail.com and DIVYA.K.T M.Ed. (2014 – 15 batch) Dept. of Educaion, University of Calicut Key terms : Basic Education, Ezhuthupalli, Elementary school INTRODUCTION As our country has moved forward far from the pathetic condition of slavery and suppression, we should realize the role of education which is behind all the progress and changes in our society .It is our duty to remember the people who stood for the renaissance of education in India. Gandhiji said, “The emphasis laid on the principle of spending every minute of one's life usefully is the best education for citizenship”. He always preached and practiced for the benefit of man kind, Education is the soverign good that can be done and attained by all for this purpose. When we observe and study the changes occurred in the field of education, it is an inevitable fact that we should move back and respect the valuable steps that had been taken by each person. We should aspire the efforts that had been put for positive movements which resulted in the making of milestones in the history of our progress. Observation and examination of the first hand experiences are the knowledge that we acquire by sensing the things directly . Field experience or field visit help us to obtain knowledge in such an effective way. When we record all our experience during this visit also become an evident for the study for future. Ayyappn Ezhuthachan Aided Upper Primary Basic School is an upper primary school in Ramanattukara which was established in 1889.The school celebrated its 125 th anniversary in 2014. The relevance of its history and anxiety to know the present status I took this school as my subject for field experience. As the school was started in 1889, it is clear that knowing the social system, conditions and practices, the basic education propagated by Gandhiji ,beginning as an Ezhuthu palli etc. have significance in this study. EZHUTHUPALLIS IN KERALA Ezhuthu Kalari, a Malayalam term refers to the old traditional village schools in Kerala. These institutions were the major centers for initiating elementary education. Most of the children to be educated in the past had to attended these centres for learning. The ezhuthu kalari had been known by other names, such as Ezhuthu pally or Asan Kalari or pallikkoodam. Ezhuthu Kalari were believed to be evolved from the ancient gurukula system of education. Teachers of ezhuthu kalari were named as ezhuth asan. Their female counter parts were known as Asaatti. Generally Ganaka or Kaniyar people of hindu religion were the teachers of Ezhuthu Kalari, They had been engaged in this profession as a traditional avocation, ever since the period of sangaham age. But for the last two centuries, it was not an uncommon finding that learned members of many other castes had also been taken up the role of teachers in such schools(wikipedia) It is well known that Ezhuthachan was the name used to denote teachers and learned people in olden days. (Ezhuthamma It is well known that Ezhuthachan was the name used to denote teachers and learned people in olden days. (Ezhuthamma - female counterpart.) People who performed Shaktheya puja were also called by the same name. Teachers of all castes were not called so. Eg. - Pisharody, Warrier, etc., who were teachers, were not called Ezhuthachans.Mostly palanquin bearers and carriers of salt, oil etc. The educated among them follow the profession of teaching and are called Ezhuthachan, ie master of learning. Both titles are used in the same family.' EZHUTHACHAN COMMUNITY It was heard that the Kaduppattans were Brahmins of the Kadu village who were banished from the country. They came to Kerala and sought the protection of the then Zamorins of Calicut, who allowed them to settle in his territory. Mostly palanquin bearers and carriers of salt, oil etc. were belongs to this caste. The educated among them follow the profession of teaching and are called Ezhuthachan, ie master of learning. HISTORY OF RAMANATTUKARA A school is symbol of a land and its culture. We cannot neglect the history of a place, when we try to collect the details to draft a short history of a school. History of a school is history of a place also. It displays the ideology, background and tradition of the people. Ramanattukara has mythical importance, it was heard that the place had mentioned in Epics and was as old as the stories of Thretha Yuga. Parashu Rama killed and donated the lands of the kings, who had killed his father. He felt regret and completed “bali karma”, the place then known as Balipuram after many years it was reduced as Velipram.Lord Subrahmannya appeared before him , blessed Parashu Rama and then disappeared from the land so it was known as Ramanandakara, then turned as Ramanattukara. There were a lot of stories regarding name of the place, Ramanattukara. Once it was called as Kadungonchira.Kadungon was a leader of parayas ,he built a pond/”chira”,people named it as Kadungonchira.Kadukon was attracted towards Neeli thampuratty and was killed by her people ,his body was thrown into the ‘chira’,that place thus called as Kadukon chira.Really the land belonged to Samoothiri King and managed by Pulappra adhikari.The place where kalari practiced was known as ‘kalarikkal thodi’. The name of this place, Ramanattukara was mentioned in “Malabar manual” , as Ramanad, regarding tax collection.In “Keralolpathi”the land was mentioned as Ramanad, the bank of river Ravanar which flowed once (and not now)-the places like Nallur,Azhinhilam,Karad,Cherukav,karumarakkad,Karippur and Chelembra were together called Ramanad. EMERGENCE OF BASIC EDUCATION The Wardha scheme of Education, popularly known as ‘Basic education’ occupies a unique place in the field of elementary education in India. This scheme was the first attempt to develop an indigenous scheme of education in British India by Mahatma Gandhi, the father of our nation. As a nationalist leader he fully realized that the British system of education could not serve the socio-economic need of the country. At Round Table Conference in London (1931) he pointed out the ineffectiveness of the system of primary education in India and the alarming low percentage of literacy among Indian people. He held the policy of the British Government responsible for this painful situation in the field of mass education. Gandhiji said “I am convinced that the present system of education is not only wasteful but positively harmful.” It was in this context the concept of Basic Education emerged in the mind of Gandhiji. The Government of India Act, 1935 came into force in 1937. According to the Act, Congress Ministries were formed in seven provinces in India. Prior to this Congress had been strongly pleading for free, compulsory and universal education. After having the power the Congress had to implement it in action. Gandhiji was the leading figure of the Indian political scene and he came forward to meet the situation. Gandhiji was fully conversant with the deplorable condition of education in the land. For improving this condition he advocated a scheme of primary education based on Indian traditional culture through the medium of mother tongue. But this required a huge sum of money which meant fresh taxation. The situation was further complicated as Mahatma Gandhi promised to introduce total prohibition which again meant the loss of a huge amount of revenue. Congress was committed to both ‘prohibition and compulsion’. To end this dilemma Gandhiji put forward the proposal that the plan of mass education need not be held up for want of funds. Free and compulsory primary education could be given to every child if the process of schooling could be made self supporting by imparting education through a useful and productive craft. Gandhiji expressed his views on education through a series of articles in ‘Harijan’ in June 30, 1937, which later on developed into the Wardha Scheme of Basic Education. The views of Gandhiji created controversies in the academic circles. Therefore it was desirable to get the scheme examined by experts and educationists. Finally, Gandhiji placed his Basic Education System to the nation in the Wardha Conference in 1937. The conference then appointed a committee under the Chairmanship of Dr. Zakir Hussain to prepare a detailed education plan and syllabus on the lines of the above resolutions. Besides Dr. Zakir Hussain, the Committee consisted of nine members. Among those who served in the committee, Prof. K. G. Saigidain’s name is prominent. Other members included were Arya Nayakam, Vinoba Bhave, Kaka Kalelkar, J. C. Kumarappa, Kishori Lal, Prof. K. T. Shah etc. As mentioned before the committee was appointed to prepare a detailed education plan and syllabus. It submitted its reports, one in December, 1937 and the other in April, 1938. This report has since become the fundamental document of the basic scheme and the scheme has come to be known as the Wardha Scheme of Education. It was approved by Mahatma Gandhi and was placed before the Indian National Congress at its Haripura session held in March,1938. In course of time more conferences were held, more committees were formed on this important subject. As a result more new features were added to this aspect of education which later on took the final shape. The conference of 1945 at Sebagram characterized Basic Education as “education for life”. The conference considered it as a radical and important revolution in social and economic structure of the Indian society, i.e., creating a new way of life.” Since then Basic education came to be known as ‘Nai Talim’. A conference of education ministers and educational workers was called by B.G. Kher in 1946, that took some important resolutions which affected the quality of Basic Education in different provinces. Basic Education has finally emerged after a decade of experimentation and discussion. The scheme of basic education formulates the following proposals Free, universal and compulsory education should be provided for all boys and girls between the ages of 7—14.This education should be imparted in the mother-tongue of the child.All education should centre round some basic craft chosen with due regard to the capacity of children and the needs of the locality. The committee suggested spinning and weaving, cardboard and wood work, leather work, kitchen-gardening, agriculture and fishery as obviously suitable crafts. The selected craft should be both taught and practised so that the children are able to produce articles which can be used and may be sold to meet part of the expenditure word ‘Basic’ is derived from the word ‘base’ which means the bottom or the foundation of a thing upon which the whole thing rests or is made o stand Mahatma Gandhi wanted to make the foundation of the educational edifice strong. It is with this objective that he put forward this scheme. This scheme of education is based on the national culture and civilisation of India. It aims at making a child self-reliant by enabling him to use his acquired knowledge and skills in practical affairs of life. Basic education has close relationship with the basic needs and interest of the education as the child is the focal point of education. The central point of this scheme is some handicraft, whose teaching will enable the student to solve the problems of his livelihood and at the same time develop qualities of good citizenship. In Gandhiji’s view, sound education must be rooted in the culture and life of the soil and therefore he strongly pleads for relating education to the environment. Free and compulsory education: Gandhiji wanted education to be free and compulsory for all boys and girls between the ages of seven to fourteen. He evolved a scheme of education which would be in harmony with the culture and civilization of the Indian people and which would solve the problem of mass education in a practical way. Education Through Craft: The basic idea of this scheme is to impart education through some craft or productive work. Craft work helps the child to acquire sensor and motor co-ordination and to appreciate the value of honest labour. Gandhiji was of the opinion that the method of training the mind through village handicraft from the beginning as the central focus would promote the real, disciplined development of the mind. The advantages of making craft as the center of education as listed by the Zakir Hussain Committee are as follows— “Psychologically, it is desirable, because it relieves the child from the tyranny of a purely academic and theoretical instruction against which its active nature is always making a healthy protest.””Secondly, the introduction of such practical productive work in education, to be participated in by all children of the nation will tend to break down the existing barriers of prejudice between manual and intellectual workers harmful alike for both.” “Economically, carried out intelligently and efficiently, the scheme will increase the productive capacity of our workers and will also enable them to utilise their leisure advantageously.” “From educational point of view, greater concreteness and reality can be given to the knowledge acquired by children through craft as knowledge will be related to life.” Self supporting aspect of the scheme. The self-supporting aspect of the scheme may be interpreted in two ways— (a) Education that will help one to be self-supporting in later life, (b) Education which in itself is self-supporting. The basic idea of Gandhiji was that if the craft chosen is taught efficiently or thoroughly, it would enable the school to pay the cost of salaries of teachers. At the same time his aim was to accord dignity of labour and ensure modest and honest and livelihood for the student after leaving school. Medium of instruction: One of the resolutions that was adopted at the All India National Conference at Wardha was that education must be imparted through the mother tongue. In this connection, the Zakir Hussain Committee’s observation was that the proper teaching of the mother tongue is the foundation of all education. Without the capacity to speak effectively and to read and to write correctly and lucidly, no one can develop precision of thought or clarity of ideas. Moreover, it is a means of introducing the child to the rich heritage of his people’s ideas, emotions and aspirations. Ideal of citizenship: Another important feature of the basic scheme is the ideal of citizenship which is implicit in it. It aimed at giving the citizens of the future a keen sense of personal growth, dignity and efficiency and social services in a cooperative community. The Zakir Hussain Committee envisaged that the new generation must at least have an opportunity of understanding their own problems and rights and obligations. A completely new system is necessary to secure the minimum of education for the intelligent exercise of the rights and duties of citizens. Flexible Curriculum and free Environment: The flexibility of the curriculum and free environment for the child to perform according to his own capacity are another remarkable features of basic education. Under this scheme the teachers and students are free to work according to their interest and there is no compulsion for completing a prescribed portion due to fear of examinations. Necessary changes may be introduced in the curriculum if a situation demands. Thus, whatever the child learns according to his interest and capacity is permanently remembered by him. The teacher is also free to organize necessary environment for the development of the child. BASIC EDUCATION SOCIETY IN RAMANATTUKARA In 1952 Basic education society formed in Ramanattukara ,by Mr. .Radhakrishna menon and some other sarvodaya workers.It was known as Sevamandira village service center.This society worked for the upliftment of villagers and for the scheme of Basic education. There were a lot of other social activities conducted by this group. For smooth running of the programmes of Basic Education they formed a Basic Compact Area ,which organized and arranged programmes to the teachers on this scheme. Ayyappan Ezhuthachan Aided Upper Primary Basic School was one among the schools under this . A SHORT HISTORY OF AYYAPPAN EZHUTHACHAN AIDED UPPER PRIMARY BASIC SCHOOL. A person is always honoured and remembered after his good deeds. When we take this in our mind, it is not the years that one lived in this world counted, but how or in what way he lived. The memory of a person is live when the effect of his actions are still live. Mr..AyyappanEzhuthchan was such an eminent person who lit the Lamp of knowledge and had kept that light forever in the minds of his students. He stood as as leading figure throughout his life for the betterment of beloved students. The Ezhuthachan community came to Malabar to make the people literate.AyyappanEzhuthachan was born (1871) in Cherppulassery as the son of Puthanveettil KunhanEzhuthachan and Kunhukkutty Amma (Ottappalam Taluk, Plakkad.Dist.).Though they were farmers, they gave importance to education also.Ayyappan Ezhuthachan was sent to learn Sanskrit, Malayalam, Jyothisham, and Vydyam from a Guru and became a Master in all these. Ayyappan Ezhuthachan came to Malabar after his studies at Cheruvannur, where his uncle Pathiyadiyil Narayanan Ezhuthachan was running an ezhuthupalli. Some of his friends requested him to start an ezhuthupalli at Ramanattukara. He then founded an Ezhuthupalli at Kalrikkal parambu, which was given by the Karanavar of Kalarikkal Tharavadu Mr..Narayana Panikkar. There was no such institution in Ramanattukara at that time and people were not given much importance to education. He could bring light of knowledge in their life with strict and disciplined style of his teaching. It was heard that, the relationship between teacher and the taught reminded the Guru Kula system. In 1889 this Ezhuthupalli had been upgraded to Lower Primary School. After getting a scientific learning on methods of teachings from Training College, Kozhikode he became head master of the L.P.School. He had written some works for teaching children, one of them was “Arogya Rathna Kalpam.” This work was a proof of his individual style in using language.He participated in discussions held on Sanskrit language and literature among the Masters of that period. He was honoured for narrating some slokas of Bhagavathgeetha with a different level of thinking. The audience were always attracted by his speech. He was like Mr. Narayana Guru believed in the concept of “one God”. It was heard that, once while he was visiting Mookambika Temple he had a vision of Devi, advising him to devote his life for educating the children. The people believes still that there is a spark of Devi’s presence. Thus the people around that locality celibrate Vijayadasami by conducting poojas in the school. He never considered money as supreme but he was wealthy by the innumerable number of students. His only intention was to create religious harmony, discipline and truthfulness among the children. At that time caste system was prevailing in Kerala. A large group of people in the society were kept as untouchable.Ayyappan Ezhuthachan took a revolutionary step of educating both upper class and lower class people of that hierarchical order of caste system together. He is still in the minds of people of Ramanatukara because of his unique strength of character, intellect will and commanding power. He married (at the age of 32) Panamanna moorkkoth Parvathy Amma. He had five children. He passed away at the age of 70, in 1941.Mr. Narayanan Ezhuthachan, the elder son of Mr.Ayyappan Ezhuthachan took the charge of the school. His son could follow the path of imparting knowledge in the same prestigious way and it continues still with a wonderful vigour and vitality. The school Ayyappan Ezhuthachan A.U.P.B. school has celebrated its 125 th anniversary in 2014.This school was founded in 1889 by Mr.. Ayyappn Ezhuthachan.It was started as an Ezhuthupalli and then was upgraded as primary school. After retiring Mr.. Ayyappan Ezhuthachan went back his native place, his elder son Mr.. P .Narayanan Ezhuthachan took charge as the manager, he worked for 40 years . This school was very prominent in arranging programmes of Basic Education.Dr.Zakkir Husain , former President of India visited the school while he was travelling around India for propagating the importance of Basic Eduction.The children of this school had a great experience of giving a bouquet of flowers to Jawaharlal lal Nehru, who was the Prime minister at that time. The school was blessed with the presence of many prominent figures like Mr..G. Ramachandran .Ramachandran, who was a sincere Gandhian thinker. The school has been center of training of teacher trainees for many years. The students of Sevamandiram Training school are taking their practice of internship from here.In 1975 Narayanan Ezhuthachan was the Head master. After that K.Vasudevan, K.K.Unnikrishna Menon, A.K.Karunakaran, Unnikrishnan Nair and Haridasan were the Head masters. The present H.M. is Sivadasan Master.K. Kunhulakshmi Amma became the Manager of the school after P.Narayanan Ezhuthachan, then their son Vijayakaran became the manager. The school always participated in Sub .district, District level competitions for arts and sports. From the earlier period itself the children of this school addressed their teachers as “Etten” (elder brother)and “Chechi (elder sister) METHODOLOGY As a part of my study I prepared tools and technique,(a) Observation schedule(b)Interview (c)Document Analysis. The investigator visited Ayyappan Ezhuthachan Aided Upper Primary Basic School. The school surroundings was observed at first. The school has a compound wall with a gate. The yellow coloured name board was hanging on the wall which has the front view from outside. There was a flag post at the middle of the courtyard of the school. The investigator could watch the assembly of the children of the same day. When I entered into the office room the Head master, Mr.P.Sivadasan was in a hurry to reach at A.E.O, even though he managed to share some information regarding the present and past periods of the institution. He introduced me to the staff and Mr..Vijayan Mangalath one among them (non-teaching staff) helped me in collecting data from both records and people. The school was started in 1889, as an Ezhuthupalli and later up graded as primary school. The things that attracted my attention are, number of class rooms, its conditions,courtyard,electricity,water supply,drinking water facility, toilets, vehicles, store room, staff rooms, science lab, office room, kitchen except the playground. The school is located in 36 cent land altogether. Teachers narrated the functions of the school, different activities-curricular and cocurricular. Navami puja is observed as an important function of the school from time immemoral. When I realized that the school was very old, I thought the data could be also collected from teachers who worked long ago, some residents nearby, persons from the family of Ayyappan Ezhuthachan, people from the management etc.by conducting inter views. Even the tele phone conversations helped me a lot. I visited Mr..Mr.nivasan and Mr.Muraleedharan to know about Ezhuthachan community, the history of Ayyappan Ezhuthachan’s family, social set up that brought them at Ramanattukara etc. Interview was conducted with former headmasters of the school such as, Mr.. A.K.Karunakaran, Mr..A.Unnikrishnan, Mr..C.Sivadasan (over telephone). Information gathered from Ramanattukara library also, the librarian suggested some sources like Mathrubhoomi daily (PAITHRUKAM (heritage)–A column written by Adv. Seluraj), Kozhikkodinte Charithram (History of Kozhikode - a book written by Adv. Seluraj). A talk with Dr.Gopi Puthukkod helped a lot to understand Basic Education, Basic education society ,under which most of the schools practiced the methods of Basic education, caste system prevailing in that time etc. The consolidation of the pieces of information gathered from these interviews show that, most of data are alike and regarding the caste system, history of the place and Basic education. From the school the investigator could check the annual reports, brochures, souvenir, photos which have helped very much in preparing a short history of Ayyappan Ezhuthachan Aided Upper Primary School. ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION As a part of the study on the history of Ayyappan Ezhuthachan Aided Upper Primary Basic School, many things regarding the history of the institution and the history of the place Ramanattukara, social system prevailing in 1889 and of course about the present status of the school were explored. The infrastructure of the school needs improvement. Most of the rooms do not have proper ventilation. The school consists of Pre-K.E.R. buildings. The school lacks a playground, the courtyard itself is the ground. There are hired vehicles in the school, but there is no parking area. There are 14 class rooms, 2 staff rooms, computer lab and science lab. The toilets for girls and boys, urinals, kitchen, store room are also arranged. The details were collected from present H.M and also from former H.Ms. There are 16 teaching staff, 1-computer assistant, 1-non-teaching staff.L.K.G, U.K.G sections were started in the primary section. There are 14 divisions, one division in each class section is an English medium class. The school authority do not like to reveal the present strength of the school, the no. of girls and boys etc. It was heard that once the total strength of the class was around thousand but the present strength may not exceed even 260 students. Children participate in arts and sports competitions in the Kalolsavam and sports. Clubs like Haritha club, science club, language club, Sahithya samajam, Nature club, Gandhi darshan, Scouts and guides, J.R.C. are there. There is a library in the school. There are P.T.A Committee in the school and school protection group or Jagrutha samithi. CONCLUSION. By the analysis the data obtained through observation, interview and document analysis it was understood that the institution was the first school in Ramanattukara. It has the importance in the field of education when we consider the society at that time. It was one among the ezhuthuopallis existed in the earlier part of 19 th centuary in Malabar. Ayyappan Ezhuthachan who was an extra ordinary talented figure put a revolutionary step in the field of education. He had the strong will power and courage to bring and educate the common people of that locality beyond the barriers of caste system. He taught the children from upper caste (savarna) and the lower caste (avarna) together, this was a challenging step at that time. The school didn’t reached the heights in the passage of time. It almost lost its past glory, but the students ,teachers, management and above all the people of that locality trying maximum to regain its prestige. The present condition the school is under the fear of division fall due to decrease in number of students. The school is working hard to overcome the threat of its existence.