Betel-chewing students with hair knots

This article on how schooling was in the late 1800s was sent to us by a reader. It was first published in ‘The Rajan Jubilee Souvenir 1897-1937’.

“In your days, you say you were this, you thought thus, and did in such manner, but you fail to realise that I will also have such a day when I would speak in a similar strain. So never mind about your days, leave me with mine,” R L S.

But most Old Boys do not feel this way; they would willingly embark upon a long narration of their exploits in school.

Those, they would say, were gloomy and merry days, we had to pilfer dad’s purse for a couple of cents to satisfy our day’s desires roundabout the local bazars. Imagine also how sad you would feel when you had to go home for nonpayment of school fees for the previous month which amounted to 25 cents in the First Standard and a rupee in the English Standard.

Holidays were given for very slight reasons. We used to get a holiday even when one of our students passed the Government Clerical Examination. As a matter of fact, you ought to respect us because all the holidays on your calendar began in our days.

School those days, started at 10.30 am and closed at 4 pm. This was due to the incessant agitation carried on by our Master, Mr Heyzer, on behalf of the boys who attended school from distant places like Kadugannawa, Gampola, and Matale. Some boys had to walk distances ranging from three to eight miles. Their pursuit of knowledge must have been an earnest one. For their only meals were early in the morning and at late night. They had a snack at 1.30 pm. To do their homework they had to keep up in the small hours of the morning.

Even students of 30 years of age attended school. Most of them wore hairknots; and they took real pride in them. The cane was a real terror. It was the cure for mischief, cribbling, neglect of work and for displeasing the teacher. But our teachers occasionally were kind to us and for one act of clemency we swore eternal devotion to them.

Our teachers were gods to us. Their exhortation paved the way for great success for the persevering kind. Their instructions guided us along the highway of noble conduct. These pedagogues of old were venerable, philosophic, strict, and fool-proof. We used to take rice cakes and a bunch of plantains in a pingo as a mark of gratitude for promotions. The modern guru condemns these old lovable customs of the sisya.

Most of the students in our time used to chew betel and spit in the school premises and dirty the walls. Our masters made it a special point to threaten us with severe caning if we were caught. To avoid trouble, in a clique of boys, one would bring areca-nuts, another chunam, a third the betel; perhaps someone else would add the tobacco. Thus, the betel chewing was carried on unnoticed; the spit was buried in the sands of the compound.

School-going then, as now, had its thrills.