This headmaster climbs coconut trees, prepares meals for school students

Kozhikode: “One evening, a few hungry children approached me after playing in the school yard. There was beaten rice and jaggery. I tied the towel around my feet, climbed the coconut tree and plucked coconuts. I then gave them the sweetened beaten rice with grated coconut. That was the first time I climbed a coconut tree at this school,” said Laiju Thomas, the headmaster at St Sebastian's LP School, Muthappanpuzha in Kerala's Kozhikode, which is on a hilltop. 

Plucking coconut is not the only activity this headmaster does: he smashes rocks with a hammer to build a compound wall for the school; he tills the land to grow yam, colocasia, tapioca and plantain; he has also made a pond to breed fish.

“Everything is for the kids‌. Without this school, learning will become a dream for the children of the Muthappanpuzha Adivasi Colony,” says Laiju ‘Mash’ (master), explaining why he sweats it out at the school more than he does at home. “Besides, I should also teach them that you will live well if you do any kind of work without reservation.”

The school is located on the slopes of Vellarimala, where Iruvanjipuzha river originates. Although many settlers have moved to the foothills from the hilltop due to landslides and wild elephants, the tribal people continue to live there.

The school has 20 students, including 16 tribal children. In most of their houses, there is not enough to eat. So, it is not just the afternoon rice porridge, Laiju Mash prepares something for them in the mornings and evenings, too.

Laiju, who is also a good athlete, has not taken a single day’s leave in his 19 years as a teacher. He goes home only once in a week. On other days, he stays in the school’s office room.