Nature gave them a second chance on Dec 26, school gives them another

Fallen buds... little ones who perished in the tsunami...unforgettable sculptures.The black plaque in the headmaster’s office of Pancha...

Fallen buds… little ones who perished in the tsunami…unforgettable sculptures.

The black plaque in the headmaster’s office of Panchayat Union Elementary School is difficult to miss. For the 53 school children of Akkaraipettai who died in the tsunami, there could not have been a more appropriate memorial.

But there’s something else that’s more difficult to miss: it shows what helping hands can do in the wake of grief and loss. It shows the triumph of hope over despair.

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What was once a dilapidated building, where classes were held under a tree, now stand seven new buildings, spacious classrooms, steel desks and benches, an LCD projector and even computers where the students spend an hour every day. Even President A P J Abdul Kalam has gone visiting.

In fact, and this is the irony that many here mention when you ask about the school: Had it not been for the tsunami, a fisherman’s daughter could have never laid her hands on a computer keyboard. This village would never have imagined having a Rs 1.40-crore modern school.

This is arguably, one of the biggest success stories of post-tsunami reconstruction in Akkaraipettai. “The loss of those 53 school children cannot be replaced but post-tsunami this village has such a good school which would not have been there had it not been for the tsunami. No doubt it destroyed us but what we got back later has really transformed the village, changed its dreams,’’ says headmaster K Ayyakannu.

Talking of dreams, no one even saw this in the wildest ones. “We resumed classes here two weeks after the tsunami, we had no hope that children would come back to study. And, we never imagined that this broken-down building would be replaced by this, by so many classrooms, a staff room and botany and computer labs. I never thought the daughter of a very poor fisherman will ever be able to see a keyboard. Today, she is learning Basic C and Java. We are lucky, really lucky.”

The luck has translated into ways never imagined. For students from poor fishing families, the school is virtually everything. Although, the school starts at 9:30 am, they are in early in the morning. ‘‘We take turns cleaning the school everyday. The girls don’t hesitate to take up the broom and start sweeping while the boys collect the garbage in plastic cans and keep it for collection,” says the headmaster. “This is our new school and we are proud of it,’’ says Ambika, a class 9 student. In fact, it was the eagerness of boys and girls like Ambika that convinced the district administration and NGOs go in for construction of this new school. The students have vindicated that conviction: they said thank-you with a pass percentage of 92% in SSC and 61 per cent in HSC in the special examinations conducted by the Tamil Nadu Government just four months after the tsunami. ‘‘During our interaction in the village we found the children get very excited when we have them new textbooks, notebooks and school uniforms. It was so obvious that they wanted to resume studies. The idea of constructing a new school came up from there. The NGOs did the rest,’’ says Nagapattinam district collector J Radhakrishanan.

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The new school has also inspired a number of parents to send their children. While there was a high drop-out rate earlier, the school saw 150 new admissions in 2005-2006 and now the strength has risen to 875. “The school keeps the children busy till 4 pm which is good for us. My daughter, Ashwida, daily tells me what she learnt in the computer class. I don’t understand much but I want her to learn all she can,’’ says Palanivale, a fisherman. If nature gave children like her a second chance on December 26, 2004, one year in the new school has given them several more.