Put focus on quality of education, says Thanu Padmanabhan

Thiruvananthapuram: Should over 3,000 government schools in the state, classified as uneconomical, be retained or razed? A government school product who is now a renowned theoretical physicist has an answer, which you may or may not agree with. Thanu Padmanabhan, who passed SSLC in 1972 from Government Boys’ HSS, Karamana, says, “I am not so concerned about the fact that a student is going to a private school or a government school any more than we are concerned about whether people are getting treatment in private or government hospitals.”

His daughter too studied in a government school – a Kendriya Vidyalaya. He says he is more concerned about the quality of education, be it government or private institutions. When asked about his stance on projects like Athirappilly, he talked about radium and electricity. Radium, he says, was used in cosmetics as people were not aware of its ill effects. No one protested then. However, when electric wires were laid, there was stiff resistance, as people thought it would drive them mad.

“Sometimes the feelings which drive the populace are wrong, sometimes these are right. There is always a time lag between (the introduction of) a scientific idea and its benefits or negative effects,” he says. From his school days, he remembers a fourth standard Malayalam teacher. He was a black sheep among a crowd of teachers who believed that all children should be rewarded equally. He told them about the three ways of killing a beautiful rose bush.

“The crudest way is to chop it off. A subtler way is to neglect it. The cruellest way to kill it, is to grow along with it a whole lot of weeds, and give plenty of manure and water,” says Mr Padmanabhan. The anecdote is now shared in international forums.