After four decades in teaching, maths and accounting legend Jithendra Phakor Chowhan has finally decided to put down the chalk.“I will miss the teaching profession.“I will take with me only the fondest of memories of those [pupils] I have [influenced],” he said.He made mention of a pupil for whom he helped secure a university bursary – one who is now a chartered accountant.“[The pupils] often come and say good things [about me].“I feel honoured each time this happens,” he said.On Friday, head of department Chowhan, 65, finally bowed out and bade farewell to colleagues, friends and pupils at Woolhope Secondary School in Malabar.Chowhan joined the school on January 1 1978.Since then, he said, the education system had gone through drastic changes.“Today the syllabus has been made much easier, particularly the content.“[Pupils] are not applying themselves compared with the previous generation,” he said.In 1980, Chowhan joined Bethelsdorp High School as a teacher under then principal Raymond Uren.During that period he was also involved in establishing a teachers’ soccer league in which teachers from various northern areas schools took part.But his teaching career took a significant turn when he was interviewed for a financial position at a multinational company.He was appointed financial analyst at Ford Motor Company in January 1981.“It was a proud moment in my life to be the second Indian at Ford in Port Elizabeth, taking into account the job reservation policy under the apartheid regime,” he said.That new career was, however, shortlived as the company was forced to disinvest from SA due to sanctions.“It was at that point that the so-called department of Indian affairs contacted me for a maths and accounting post at Woolhope High School in 1985,” he said.During his last period at the school, Chowhan served the department of education in various capacities.He was involved in tutoring Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) classes for adults in full-time employment who wanted to further their studies part-time.He assisted with tutoring pupils in matric intervention programmes and took on many duties from marker to chief examiner, as well as chief moderator for accounting.He was instrumental in influencing pupils to choose careers in chartered accounting.Today, three of his former pupils are actuaries.During 1995 and 1996, Chowhan lectured part-time at Vista University.In 2012, he had stint at what was then NMMU, where he also lectured part-time.“Discipline is a major concern in our schools today,” Chowhan said.“The department must allow schools to administer corporal punishment.“They must look at the merits and demerits of each case, but not generalise that teachers are abusing the children.”