Varkala School

We asked our rickshaw driver Mujee if he would take us to visit a local school. The one he chose was a primary school in a nearby village. There were four classrooms and the children ranged from 7 to 11 or 12. It was a government run free school as opposed to the private schools where people who can afford the tuition send their children. The children receive uniforms and hot meals and, it seems, a fairly decent education. Of course not the same caliber as the private schools where the students 'study for the test' to get them into college.When we arrived and asked the headmistress' permission to visit, controlled chaos broke out as the kids swarmed out to greet us. As is the custom here they beseeched us for pens, and finding we didn't have any to give out, they settled for seeing their pictures on the small screen of my digital camera. We promised that when we returned home we would send both prints of the photos and some primary readers. We got to visit each classroom and the headmistress proudly showed off her pupils' proficiency in English.