Education and my job in Agartala

We learned that the mission employed quite a number of Indian staff to assist the New Zealanders. A doctor, pharmacist, lab technician and numbers of nurses besides cleaning staff and clerks to operate the hospital and other health services. A dozen teachers in the school on the mission compound, and up to a hundred more to run village schools in the countryside. 

Over the years we explored a bit more of the State of Tripura. One trip to a Church Conference in the south-east involved driving to a village about an hour south of Agartala, and then walking along jungle tracks for an hour to a village where we stayed overnight.  The next day we trekked around 20 miles (32km) to the Conference venue. 

Terry, 9 months , at the Hachupara house

Many years later Audrey and the children and I spent a few days in the first village (Hachupara) where the mission had a bamboo house for us to use. It had posts built of rough-dressed tree-trunks, walls and floors and inside framing of bamboo, roof of thatching-grass (like raupo), and was tied together with coconut fibre string, rather than nails.  This was similar to all village houses in those days. 

When another conference was held at the same village as previously five years later,  we could bus the whole way, as a modern road had been built in the meantime. 

In five years while we lived in Tripura, the Government built miles of roads and bridges, put in 1000 village primary schools, established 33 high schools, built a 300-bed base hospital and six cottage hospitals, six agricultural research stations, and installed an electric-power plant – a massive development effort, all funded by the Government of India. 

My job was to take over management of St Paul’s mission school from the beginning of 1960. This involved the professional leadership of the teaching staff, the financial and physical management, and managing the hostels, which accommodated about 120 of the pupils. 

The intention was that before long we would start extending the school, which then taught pupils up to year 6, up to year 8. For higher classes the students then joined the local government high school, Bardwali, which taught up to the qualifications for tertiary college entry. 

The management side involved preparing and administering the school and hostel budgets, paying the salaries (in cash) and all other bills, and keeping the accounts, and in particular supervising the building and maintenance of the school plant. 

Needless to say, I rapidly became familiar with currency, weights and measures, building terminology, and so on. Fortunately I had several very experienced colleagues who were able to advise me on such matters, and experienced Indian teachers on the staff who handled all the everyday teaching side. I taught a few periods a week of English and later on a couple of other subjects once my Bengali was good enough. I particularly remember teaching a year seven class the Pythagoras Theorem in Bengali, and having to learn the Bengali for hypotenuse in the process. 

In addition, I had to carry my share of other general mission tasks, including membership of a couple of specialist committees, one to supervise the economic development programme, and an ad hoc committee charged with setting Cost of Living allowances for all mission staff during periods of inflation. 

I soon got involved in curriculum development. Unesco had issued a report in 1951 which recommended that children ahould all be taught in their mother-tongue until at least the third year. Most of our pupils were having their education in a foreign language, ie Bengali, whereas their original languages were Tibeto-Burman group tongues and dialects, similar to Sherpa or Bhutanese. Very few of these non-Bengali languages had been written and nothing was published in them. 

All we were able to do was to start weekly classes in about four of the main tribal languages, and students attended classes in the one of those four that was closest to their own. 

The Indian Education system in those days was pushing what they called Basic Education, founded on the teachings and ideas of Mahatma Gandhi. This meant that schools taught children to work at the skills their parents used in their occupations in the village situation, and through this work managed to teach language and maths and science and social studies.  

We worked hard at trying to develop our existing loin-loom (girls) and agriculture (boys) classes to cover spinning, dyeing, handloom, and to introduce other practical skills. Ultimately all this good theory fell on deaf ears, because the students and especially their families believed that the path to improvement led through higher education and a government job. 

We managed to achieve the upgrade to year 8 level, but once I left with my odd European ideas the school was converted to English-medium, and an emphasis on traditional book-learning in preparation for University studies and those cushy, well-paid jobs.