The COVID-19 pandemic has enabled students of Government High School at Valayapalayam in T.N. Palayam block to turn writers, who with the help of teachers, penned down their observations, which were released as journals and found their place in the school library.
The school has 139 students from Classes 6 to 10 and 11 teachers, including its headmistress N.K. Dhanabakyam. Since there was no interaction between teachers and students for many months, teachers visited the students’ home during September and October last year during which many students shared their observations and experiences during the lockdown. They narrated incidents of how their family suffered during lockdown, life in forest areas and how they went for swimming and how their mother cooked food in their small kitchen room. “Since their observation was very sharp and the narration was joyful, we asked them to record all the interesting events so that we can come out with a journal for each student”, said Mrs. Dhanabakyam.
Students took pictures for their own scripts and submitted it to the teachers who corrected it and published it as 78 journals. K. Gokilavani, a class X, student in her journal on, “The Palm Fruit Will Fall”, describes her days when she was roaming around the village on a bicycle with her friends and taking care of her pet dog and helping her mother in maintaining the house. She describes how she actively took care of the plants in her small garden containing rose plants, herbs, and greens and was eagerly waiting for the palm fruit from the tree to fall.
Students’ writings explain chicken nesting, how they fished at a pond, how they reared cattle and poultry the lessons they learnt during the lockdown. “It is a well-utilised opportunity for students to be writers”, the headmistress said and added that they are planning to publish the content as books.