KOZHIKODE: Chinthavalappu Government upper primary school, situated in the heart of Kozhikode city, is not just another sorry tale of a government school awaiting an impending doom.The school evokes interest as it has been completely wiped off the local flavour in terms of its students. It has classes from one to seven and all the 32 students come from everywhere except Kerala.Most of the students are from Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh. The last time the school had a Malayali student was two years back.According to the school authorities, parents of these students are migrant labourers who have been in this region for years. “As the number of non-Malayali students increased, the local people were reluctant to admit their children in the school,” says Vinodini, science teacher at the school.School headmistress M M Usha said the vocabulary of the students in Malayalam is still limited to what they learn at the school. “Students speak Malayalam here but a different language at home.Teachers make use of pictures, drawings and photographs to make them understand the language,” she said.Now, the teachers are trying to pick up the native language of the students to enhance the learning process.“It’s very tough when they return after the vacation. Everything has to be taught from the beginning. Though Malayalam is like a foreign language to them, still they are trying to learn it with interest,” says Malayalam teacher K Serena.And the students appear to enjoy learning Malayalam.“I can count and write a few lines in Malayalam,” says Athira a seventh standard Tamil girl.The students are encouraged to participate in many cultural and literary competitions.Ashwathi, a Tamil girl in class VI, has got subdistrict level recognition in Malayalam light music.
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