Influenced by movie, Kerala schools to remove backbenchers through a new seating arrangement

Kollam(Kerala): At Ramavilasom Vocational Higher Secondary School (RVHSS) in Valakom in this South Kerala district, a proud tribute to former student G P Nandana greets visitors at the gate, celebrating her remarkable feat of securing the 2nd rank in Kerala and 47th nationally in the Civil Services Examinations. But the school’s acclaim doesn’t end there, as it has also become a model for innovation in education, thanks to a unique classroom setup that eliminates the idea of backbenchers entirely.

By rearranging seating to ensure every primary student gets equal attention, RVHSS has drawn admiration and imitation. Influenced by the recently released Malayalam movie, 'Sthanarthi Sreekuttan', the school has brought in an innovative seating arrangement where single row seats are aligned with the four walls of the classroom, so everyone sits in front benches. Eight schools in Kerala have already adopted this seating arrangement, and even a school in Punjab has adopted it.

"I got a message that a school in Punjab has also adopted it after the principal saw the movie on the OTT platform. He also screened the movie for the students. I am happy that it got national attention," Vinesh Viswanathan, director of the movie 'Sthanarthi Sreekuttan', told PTI.

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He said the movie had just one scene showing this arrangement, as an idea implemented by a 7th standard student in the film. "It was his experience of being insulted sitting on the backbench that gave him such an idea. I never thought it would get such attention. It is not an idea created by us, but we did have such a seating arrangement earlier in classrooms, as part of District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) and we had lost it somewhere in between," Vinesh said.

Minister KB Kumar's initiative

In fact, it was the farsightedness of Minister K B Ganesh Kumar, whose family runs RMVHSS, that paved the way to introducing this system in this school. Ganesh Kumar had watched the preview of 'Sthanarthi Sreekuttan', a year before its release and discussed the possibility of introducing it in primary classes in RMVHSS with the teachers.

"Ganesh Kumar discussed this with us and his wife, who manages the school. We also agreed to start it in one class. The results we got were very positive and we introduced them to all lower primary classes," Sunil P Sekhar, Headmaster of RMVHSS, told PTI. He said this system enabled teachers to give equal attention to all students in the classroom and helped them monitor the students better.

Moreover, it eliminated the concept of backbenchers and put all students at the forefront. He said many more schools have now shown interest in adopting this model. "Lower primary classes are where students learn a lot of new things and they naturally get rid of the concept or taboo of sitting on the backbenches. It also helps students to have a more direct interaction with the teachers," he added.

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Meera, a lower primary teacher, with more than 29 years of experience said she found this model more rewarding and productive compared to the conventional seating arrangements in school classrooms. "I am able to attend to each of the students in the classroom, and give better care to each of them.

A positive response

The students are also happy as they see the faces of all students in the classroom and also pay close attention to the teacher," Meera said. The teachers say that such systems are already practised in countries like Finland and Norway with a better student-teacher ratio in schools.

"I got some negative comments from the X platform, where some senior students have posted that they have 80 students in the classroom and how this system can be introduced in such a situation. It is actually against our existing law to have so many students in a class, and the authorities are now taking action against that school," Vinesh Viswanath said. He said even Anand Mahindra has tweeted, saying it is a welcome move, though he personally likes the concept of backbenchers.