Vallana Higher Secondary School

If you drive down the Mulakuzha Kidangannur Road, you will come across Vallana Higher Secondary School. It sits right there in Kidangannur in the Pathanamthitta district. The school has been around for quite a while, serving the local families. It is a solid building, though it shows its age in some corners. We have students coming in from all over the nearby area, some by bus and others on foot. The classrooms are filled with the sound of lectures and the occasional scraping of chairs. We handle the older kids, so the atmosphere is a bit more focused than a primary school. During the lunch break, the grounds get crowded with students eating and talking. We have a staff room where the teachers gather to grade papers and drink tea between sessions. It is a straightforward place with no unnecessary frills. We deal with the usual school issues like attendance and keeping the facilities clean. The library has some old books that have been read by hundreds of students over the years. We try to keep the garden area neat, though the weeds grow fast in this climate. Parents come by for meetings or to pick up certificates, and we usually have a chat about how things are going in the village. It is a typical local school where everyone knows everyone else. We just focus on getting the students through their classes so they can move on to college.