The following article was printed in the first School magazine(THE ACADEMY ANNUAL 1969-1970) and was written By Mr V.N.Langer first principal of TNA

 

THE ACADEMY

April 1956—October 1965

October 1965—December 1969

 

 

April 1956—October 1965:

Ten years seems a long period to wait for the realization of an idea—but when we look back, after its achievement, many years after the gap seems much shorter. The decision to start a public School in Sikkim or, an institution more or less on the same lines, was taken by the durbar in 1956, The idea however, could take concrete shape only in the year 1966.

In between so much work was to be done. Not only we needed more buildings, more equipment and new play grounds, to accommodate those students who could not be fitted into the public school, we needed a new well-equipped and well staffed Higher Secondary School as well.

Plans were drawn first of additional buildings for the public school and work was started on some of these in 1957. A new annexe to the old school buildings was declared open on April 14, 1959 and by October 1961 we had a big auditorium as well. Plans were now made to build a new hostel but there was a slight set back during the period of anxiety following the 1962 Chinese aggression in India. When the situation eased a little building work was pushed on again with vigour. Our new hostel was ready for occupation by May 1964 and soon after work was started in the development area on buildings for the new Higher Secondary School. After the main School building, the hostel and some staff quarters were ready in October 1965, we were asked to go ahead with the idea of reorganizing Tashi Namgyal Academy on public school lines. It was decided also that the new public school should, at the beginning have seven classes only, starting from K.G. and going up to VI as the highest class every year till we came to class XI which should mark the final School Certificate Stage.

This policy, it was hoped, would enable us to build up an institution in which even though the medium of instruction and the first language would be English, it would still remain Sikkimese in its tradition and culture.

 

October 1965—December 1969:

There was an interval of two and half months only between the close of the last session of Tashi Namgyal Academy, as a Higher Secondary School and start of the first session of the new Public School which, in any case, would have been the two busiest sessions of the institutions even if there had been no change. The prospectus, However , had already been prepared in anticipation, but we had still to get teachers to replace those who were going to be transferred to the New Higher Secondary School—and it was not possible to know how many, till we knew the number of students we were going to have in the first year.

For our syllabuses for various classes we had decided to follow the outline approved for Anglo-Indian Schools but we had to select and order our books. A school uniform had also to be designed and approved and official drapers were to be appointed.

New tasks and new problems kept on cropping up as we grappled with the old.

The prospectus was published in November 1965 and admissions to the various classes of the public school were declared open simultaneously. Posts of Teachers were advertised in “Papers” and tenders for uniforms were invited from local dealers. Only one tender was received and so prices of various items of uniforms were fixed through negotiations. The dealer was asked also to send samples of Ties, Socks and Stockings to the principal while he was out on tour during January interviewing suitable candidates for teachers’ posts at the two to three selected places in India.

On return, in February, the Principal found only forty students had applied for admission. A more anxious situation developed when, just before the start of the new session, out of the four new members of the staff who had been appointed two backed out. One of those was the Matron.

The older Staff of the Higher Secondary days, who had been retained, now gallantly rose to meet the situation.

Hurriedly a new teaching routine was drawn out and responsibilities were redistributed among them. The principal’s wife took over the responsibility of organizing the Hostel and its routine so that it might be ready to receive the boarders when they came a day before the start of the session.

Suddenly there was a rush of applications for admission. In spite of many rejections of over-age students, one section of our K.G. class was soon full and we had to start one more to accommodate others. Admissions to Classes I,II and III also were reasonable but rather disappointing in IV, V & VI. Few of those students who had come from Hindi and Nepali medium schools could qualify for admission to these classes and those parents, Whose sons and daughters were already studying in the so called ‘English’  Schools, naturally preferred to wait till they could get an idea of the standard of the Institution. In

Spite of this we had one hundred and thirty students on roll—more than we had expected in the first year— and more than could be managed by the available staff.

 

As the days passed the staffing problem, though not quiet solved became less acute. A new Matron took over charge of the Hostel leaving Mrs. Langer free to devote herself to teaching work. Two more teachers were appointed, one for the additional section of K.G. class and the other to teach English to senior Classes. A programme of weekly and terminal tests was drawn out and monthly and terminal reports also made their appearance. To avoid corporal punishment except for very serious offences, a system of yellow and red report cards was introduced so that when verbal warnings proved ineffective the parents’ cooperation could be sought to put the students back on the right track. At the same time, as incentives to better effort, white and gold merit cards were awarded to students with general proficiency all round. Slowly the confidence of the public grew and on our Annual Day even many of those who had been very critical at first came spontaneously forward to congratulate us on the performance of our students. The Public School had come to stay.

            The second session started on 1^st March 1967 with greater confidence all round. One more class VIIth had been added and now among students seeking admission there were also those who had been studying in ‘English” Schools in Kalimpong and Darjeeling. Our K.G. class was split into three sections two of Lower K.G. and one Upper. We had to split Class I also and there were more students in our higher classes also. The total number on rolls was 187.

            Some more teachers were appointed and since games were compulsory we needed more play grounds as well. This problem was solved by converting some flat pieces of land into three new small play grounds, one for basket ball, the second for junior football or senior Net-ball and the third for badminton.

            To keep K.G. children engaged during the evening ‘Prep’ of other Boarders, a K.G. Recreation Room was set up where such students could be taken by lady teachers to play indoor games. The Recreation Room had its own set of games, children’s books, a radio, a record player and a number of children’s Song and Story records. A radio and sets of indoor games were issued to bigger boys also.

            For all round development of the faculties of students a large number of Co-curricular activities had already been started. On the hobbies side we had Painting, wood-craft, leather-work, Dance Drama and Music. Later Sewing and knitting were also added to the list for girls.

            On the games side we had Football and Volley-ball for boys, Basket ball and Hockey for boys and girls both and net-ball and base-ball for girls only. (Cricket was introduced in 1968 and soon this game became very popular).

            To keep parents informed of the school activities we started publication of a monthly bulletin called “The Academy News” and a daily ‘News Flash’ written by different students in turns kept them in touch with world events of importance.

            To teach the students the dignity of labour two or three ‘Self-Help’ days were organized in every term. On such days the Staff and Students combined to clean up the buildings and the compound, to repair fences, to clean up the garden and to dig pits for planting, to do the painting of the benches and play apparatus in the children’s park—and even to white wash walls of the School and Hostel buildings which seemed particularly dirty.

            We had tried to do many things during the two years and had achieved a fair measure of success in most but still had not been able to bring about stability in the staff position. There were too many opportunities open outside in the Africian States and in the neighbouring towns. Teachers came and soon left for Kalimpong, Darjeeling or for Ethiopia to take up more lucrative jobs.

However, by 1969 after the revision of grades, there was some improvement in this direction also. Two Masters with experience of teaching in similar schools were appointed to teach Chemistry and Biology and another Master with special Qualifications in Games and Sports was appointed not only to teach general subjects to middle classes but also to coach our students in Gymnastics, Football and athletics as well. Two more Masters were appointed to take charge of our Arts and Crafts section.

            One more appointment was made in March 1970 of a highly qualified Master to teach Mathematics to Higher Classes.

            With passing of each year there had been increasing pressure of students in our lowers classes. Since, however, we were not allowed to have sections above class II we had to restrict admission in Lowers classes from Lower K.G. to I also. In spite of these restrictions and withdrawals of many students, when their parents were transferred, the number stood at 232 in 1969.

Details of changes made on the curricular and co-curricular side during 1969 will be found in the Principal’s Annual Report, extracts from which have been published elsewhere in the issue and for 1970 session (which has just begun, as we are going to the press) we shall present a report in the next issue, which we hope, will paint even a better picture of the progress of the Institution.