Bharathiyar Girls Higher Secondary School

In the town of Attur, specifically at No 12 in Bharathiyar Nagar, sits Bharathiyar Girls Higher Secondary School. Salem can get quite hot in the afternoons, so we are glad for the trees we have around the school yard. It’s a place for girls from all around the Salem district to come and finish their higher secondary years. The building itself is a solid structure with long corridors that echo when the students are moving between classes. We don’t have much in the way of fancy gadgets, but we have enough benches and plenty of chalk. The teachers here are quite strict about the uniforms and the timings, but they also spend a lot of time helping girls who find the math or science lessons a bit tough. In the mornings, you can see groups of girls walking together from the bus stand or being dropped off by their fathers. There is a lot of chatter during the break times, and the playground gets quite dusty when they are out there for physical education. We have a small office where all the records are kept in big paper files. It’s a very traditional setup, really. We focus on the books and the exams because that is what the parents in Attur expect from us. Life here follows the same pattern every year, from the admissions in the summer to the final exams when everyone is nervous and busy studying in the quiet halls.