Failed Students and Passed Teacher

In the small village, a shocking revelation unfolded. All the children in grade five had failed their exams. The news spread like wildfire, and as the sun set, the village was gripped by a growing sense of despair and anger.

The village held a deep belief that success in grade five was equivalent to obtaining a postgraduate degree, making it a prestigious accomplishment. Joining the sixth grade in a different village from their hometown after passing grade five was akin to studying abroad. The unexpected failure of all the children was incomprehensible, and it left the fifth-grade teacher bewildered, wandering with an empty stomach.

As the town awaited answers and the shadows lengthened, a sense of foreboding hung in the air, like the calm before a storm.

It was a small town in a backward district, with most of the children belonging to the Mala Madiga caste. The higher castes, like Brahmins, Reddys, and Kammas,(different castes in India) refused to send their children to the village school, maintained by Government funds due to social hierarchies. Instead, they preferred exclusive English convents, driven by dreams of their offspring going to America or England.

The village school had only three teachers, who had been reassigned from closed single-teacher schools in neighboring areas. The headmaster, a politically inclined individual, was preoccupied with running a usurious business while managing the school. He had a vested interest in the school’s closure, as it would…