No backbenchers: This Kerala school has introduced new seating arrangements for classrooms

“I got a message that a school in Punjab has also adopted it after the principal saw the movie on the OTT platform. He also screened the movie for the students. I am happy that it got national attention,” Vinesh Viswanathan, director of the movie ‘Sthanarthi Sreekuttan’, told PTI. He said the movie had just one scene showing this arrangement, as an idea implemented by a 7th standard student in the film.

“It was his experience of being insulted sitting on the backbench that gave him such an idea. I never thought it would get such attention. It is not an idea created by us, but we did have such a seating arrangement earlier in classrooms, as part of the District Primary Education Programme (DPEP), and we had lost it somewhere in between,” Vinesh said.

The headmaster of the school, Sunil P Sekhar, told the news agency that this system enabled teachers to give equal attention to all students in the classroom and helped them monitor the students better. Moreover, it eliminated the concept of backbenchers and put all students at the forefront. He said many more schools have now shown interest in adopting this model.

“Lower primary classes are where students learn a lot of new things, and they naturally get rid of the concept or taboo of sitting on the backbenches. It also helps students to have a more direct interaction with the teachers,” he added.

He said even Anand Mahindra has tweeted, saying it is a welcome move, though he personally likes the concept of backbenchers.

(with inputs from PTI)