Resaerch Questions and Field Notes - Part II

An excerpt from the field notes that I collected in accordance with my first visit at the school...

• Total number of students - 380, where the population of girls is a little higher than the population of boys (a lot of factors can be responsible for this ratio)

• Primary Assembly - Starts with attention - stand it is (I cannot make out that why in every school these commands are carried out), followed by the prayer, talks and news by the students - everything in Tamil - everyone wishes the teachers morning in unison - no strict rule for keeping bags aside while assembly - students were with/without bags on their shoulders - late comers keep on joining in randomly - national anthem - finished in 30 seconds (weird tune of the national anthem) - students disperse.

• High School Assembly - Starts with Physical Training (P.T.) - boys and girls have different steps (There could be some reason for the same, maybe to differentiate boys and girls in a co-ed school, but why? still to figure out) - P.T. followed by talks, news and prayer in the respective order - the students in the high school assembly are without the school bags (because probably they have to carry out the P.T. practice) - the national anthem follows - the students disperse in orderly queues (Taught to be in order) - late comers join their respective lines and disperse.

• Students are guided randomly by a teacher whenever they tend to go wrong. They are even given warnings of being aware of the steps being carried out - P.T. is carried out on whistles of the P.T. master (How well they have been trained!)

• Lunch Time: 11:50 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.

Students come out of their classes with their respective aluminium plates for lunch - wash their own plates - and sit in rows of girls and boys waiting for food to be served - form different groups separated by a small gap in between the girls' group and the boys' group 

• Senior Boys (IX & X) are in-charges of  serving food to the students - students can take how much ever food they want - no blockages for second and third servings

• Girls - while getting food - ordely, disciplined - take the food, sit in rows, again orderly and chat during the whole day

• Boys -  while getting food - Disorderly, naughty, chaotic, everyone wants food first - in-charges manage the chaos - boys want to finish their food and get off to play.

• Girls are not allowed to talk to boys as defined by the teachers (hidden curriculum) - still the students talk when no teacher is not around - boys and girls involve themselves in teasing and joking with each other while the food servings take place.

• Talks of girls during lunch - they say they are "underwear friends" meaning childhood friends (the intimacy, friendliness and closeness among them is clearly seen), watch Tamil movies only but aware of the Bollywood actors - have many male friends but not ready for boyfriends, say that will have boy friends in college, the others say that "mumma maregi".

• Post lunch - all students clean their own plates, form lines, and disperse - the girls clean the wash area and the floor near the wash area