Chennai: They can be called as the most-loved teacher couple in city. Meet Thiruvanmiyur’s G Ramaswamy (84) and Susheela Ramaswamy (76), who have been providing tuition at their home, free of cost, for several decades now.
While the latter has been taking classes from 1967, Ramaswamy joined her after retiring in 2004 and teaches students from State board, CBSE and Samacheer Kalvi.
Their students are children of auto drivers, domestic helps, single parents, vendors and so on, it is learnt.
Speaking to this paper, G Ramaswamy says, he takes all subjects except for Hindi, which he leaves to his language expert wife. While home-classes are often discouraged by teachers and parents, the session with this senior citizen couple is a tad different.
“Apart from academics, we let them play with toys, make them go through picture books, do a bit of gardening, teach them about nature and tell them about world news,” says Susheela, adding,”But we make sure that they do the homework and learn something new.”
In return, the children love the duo. “If any of their friends complain that their tuition teacher had punished them, they bring them here for classes. They shower so much affection on us that at sharp 6.30 pm, they remind me to take tablets and come with small gifts if they know I am unwell,” she states.
A retired Mechanical Engineer from ICF, Ramaswamy says that the school teachers cannot be blamed. “They have limited time to teach a class of 40 students and are burdened with correcting their homework too,” says Ramaswamy who also helps the young ones with life lessons.
“I tell them about facing success and failure equally,” he notes.
The students need not bring their tuition note books as most of them cannot afford the same. “The price of a notebook is Rs 40. So I ask my friends to contribute one-sided papers so that these children can practise writing and learning,” he says.
It may be noted that recently, Minister for Tamil Language and Tamil Culture Ma Foi K Pandiarajan, had felicitated the couple for their service to the society.
They can be reached at 99405 14473, 98404 61987 and 99403 51987.