Destroy the seeds of caste

My first visit to government schools was some time in 1998-99, even before the Azim Premji Foundation became operational. The schools, in one of the northern states, were in a highly deplorable condition. Broken walls, missing windows, leaky roofs, absence of a proper playground and free movement of pigs within the premises of the school was the order of the day in most of the schools I visited. But what I liked was the way the school staff, including the principal or head teacher, welcomed us in each school. Mostly because the NGO whose members accompanied me was well known to the schools. Later, I realised that this welcoming was a sustained feature of most government schools. It becomes embarrassing when the head teacher invariably offers his or her chair to a guest and insists that he or she must sit.