A Tamil Nadu Teacher Turned His Govt School’s Classrooms Into Bright Train Coaches & Enrolment Tripled

After months of attending classes online during the COVID pandemic, Manimekalai remembers finally walking back into Pethanayakanur Government High School in Coimbatore district.

The school she returned to looked very different.

Every classroom had been painted to resemble a colourful train coach. Music and celebrations welcomed the students back after months away from their teachers and friends.

“During the COVID pandemic, we had online classes. When we finally returned to school, we were amazed to see all the classrooms painted like train coaches. Sir welcomed us with music and celebration. It was unforgettable,” recalls Manimekalai, now a Class 10 student.

The idea had come from Balamurugan, the school’s Tamil teacher, who wanted children returning after the pandemic to feel excited about coming back to school.

For Manimekalai, the train coaches are part of a school she speaks about with pride. For Balamurugan and his colleagues, they represent one colourful chapter in a transformation that had begun almost a decade earlier.

Long before the classrooms looked like train coaches, Pethanayakanur Government High School was struggling to convince parents to send their children there.

Before the train coaches, there were only 70 students

In 2012, the school had around 70 students.

Its infrastructure and facilities were relatively poor, affecting how parents perceived the school. Families also had other options nearby.

A larger government higher secondary school around 2 km away had more than 400 students, while another higher secondary school about 5 km away had over 900. Many parents chose these better-established schools or private schools for their children.

Then, in 2013, Balamurugan joined Pethanayakanur Government High School as a Tamil teacher.

The change that followed came in stages. He became the primary driving force during its initial years, beginning with the physical environment around the children. As the initiatives grew, other teachers joined him, and the work gradually became a collective effort by the teaching staff.

Between 2013 and 2015, one of Balamurugan’s first priorities was the barren school grounds.

“In one week, we planted 110 saplings. Today, those trees give shade to our children,” he says.

What began with those first saplings would eventually grow into a wider effort to make environmental learning part of school life.

The first changes took root in the school grounds

From 2015 to 2017, environmental activities expanded.

Students began collecting native seeds, making seed balls and participating in programmes around biodiversity and environmental conservation.

Over the years, they have made 45,000 seed balls for reforestation drives and planted more than 960 saplings across the campus and neighbourhood. They have also attended seminars on forests, biodiversity and climate change.

“Climate change will shape their lives. We want our students to grow up respecting nature,” says Balamurugan.

That thinking appears in small practices across the campus too.

The school works towards maintaining a green, clean and plastic-free environment. During birthday celebrations, for instance, students are encouraged to avoid plastic-packaged chocolates and share jaggery or homemade sweets instead.

For Balamurugan, environmental education works best when children can participate in it themselves, whether by planting a sapling, collecting a native seed or writing about the world around them.

That last activity, writing, would soon become another important part of the school’s transformation.

A library grew, and students began seeing themselves as writers

Between 2017 and 2019, the school increased its focus on reading and student participation.

A small library that had been developed earlier began to grow. Reading programmes and student reading circles followed, encouraging children to pick up books, discuss what they had read and eventually write their own poems, essays and stories.

Today, the library holds more than 6,000 books.

It was built book by book through several sources.

Balamurugan, who participates in reading circles in Pollachi and Coimbatore and has written books himself, reached out to reading groups, writers, readers and non-profit organisations for donations. He also bought books personally, spending around Rs 24,000 on them. Government departments contributed books as well.

Inside that library, Class 9 student Tamil Arasi has begun to see herself differently.

“In most places, students read the works of famous authors. But in our school, students read our own poems and articles in books,” she says with a soft laugh. “It makes us feel like real writers.”

Students’ short stories, essays and poems have also been published in book form with support from Balamurugan.

“The short stories, essays and poems we write have been published as a book by some of the publishers, with the help of Teacher Balamurugan. Our books are read by other readers as well,” Tamil Arasi says.

Her own writing has travelled far beyond her classroom.

“He had sent my article on environmental protection for the Tamil Nadu Government’s student magazine, Thenchittu. My article has been published in this journal. More than 8 lakh students have read this article. We are running a readers’ circle under the leadership of a Tamil teacher,” she says happily.

For Tamil Arasi, seeing her work in print has made writing feel tangible. Children at the school can now pick up books and encounter words written by classmates sitting beside them.

As this reading culture grew, the school was also finding other ways for children to connect with their roots and discover what they enjoyed beyond textbooks.

From books to folk arts, learning began spilling beyond the classroom

By 2019 and 2020, Pethanayakanur Government High School had developed a broader learning environment combining academics with environmental activities, reading, Tamil folk arts and sports.

Students trained in traditional forms such as Parai Isai (parai drumming), Mayilattam (peacock dance), Oyilattam (folk dance), Karakattam (pot-balancing folk dance), Kavadiyattam (kavadi dance) and Kummi (clapping folk dance).

Manimekalai says the school day stretches from morning into the evening. After regular classes, students receive two hours of training in traditional Tamil folk arts. They also take part in tree planting and sports sessions.

For her, these experiences are part of what makes the school special.

“My brother studied here and has now cleared NEET, India’s toughest medical entrance exam,” she says. “I’m proud to study in this school. Our Tamil teacher, Balamurugan Sir, treats us like his own children.”

Her brother studied at Pethanayakanur Government High School until Class 10, completed Class 12 at another government school, and later cleared NEET.

“That’s a big win for our school. I feel lucky and proud to study here,” she adds.

By the time the pandemic arrived, many of the pieces were already in place: trees that students had helped plant, reading circles, a growing library, environmental activities, cultural programmes and sports.

The long closure then created a new question for the teachers: How could they make children feel happy about returning?

Rs 50,000 turned ordinary classrooms into colourful train coaches

The answer became the feature that visitors now notice as soon as they enter the school.

Following the COVID period, the classrooms were painted to resemble bright train coaches, creating a colourful and welcoming environment for returning students.

The makeover cost around Rs 50,000.

Balamurugan contributed Rs 35,000 himself, while parents contributed the remaining Rs 15,000.

The train-themed classrooms were one part of a larger combination of personal contributions, parent support, donations and government assistance that helped the school develop over the years.

The Tamil Nadu School Education Department provided the smart classroom and also contributed books to the library.

Other resources came through Balamurugan’s networks of readers, writers and non-profit organisations, while teachers and parents became part of the school’s growing efforts.

For the students returning after the pandemic, however, those funding streams translated into something far simpler: classrooms that made school feel exciting again.

Manimekalai still remembers that first day back.

The transformation also appears in another number that the teachers and headmistress point to with pride: enrolment.

Parents began choosing the school again 

From around 70 students in 2012, Pethanayakanur Government High School now has more than 200.

Headmistress Umamaheswari puts the current figure at more than 210.

“In 2012, we had only 70 students. Today we have more than 210. Parents send their children here because they see how disciplined, confident, and responsible they become,” she says.

The rise happened gradually as parents saw changes in the school environment, facilities, academic performance and the opportunities available to students.

The school has maintained a 100% Class 10 pass rate from 2015, according to the information shared by the school. Students have also participated in and recorded achievements across sports, art and craft and other activities.

For Umamaheswari, the commitment of the teaching staff has shaped much of that progress.

“If every school had teachers as constructive and committed as ours, our children’s future would be even brighter,” she says.

The numbers tell one part of the story. The children reveal another.

A student sees her environmental article appear in a government magazine. Another speaks proudly about a brother who once studied in the same classrooms and went on to clear NEET. Children learn folk dances after lessons, collect seeds, make seed balls and sit beneath trees planted years earlier.

For Balamurugan, all of these activities lead towards the same purpose.

‘We want them to become good thinkers and good human beings’

For Balamurugan, the transformation of Pethanayakanur Government High School has always centred on the children who walk through its gates.

“Whether it is reading, writing, folk arts, or environmental education, everything we do is to help students become good thinkers and good human beings,” he says.

Thirteen years after he joined the school, some of the earliest saplings planted on its grounds now provide shade to its students.

Inside, a library that began small holds more than 6,000 books. Student writing sits alongside the work they read. Traditional Tamil arts continue after classroom lessons. The walls themselves resemble train coaches, created to welcome children back to a place their teachers wanted them to enjoy.

And where around 70 students studied in 2012, more than 200 do today.

For children like Tamil Arasi and Manimekalai, the transformation is part of their everyday school life: the stories they write, the arts they learn, the trees they care for, and the confidence with which they talk about where they study.

“I feel lucky and proud to study here,” says Manimekalai.

Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: thebetterindia.com