Juvenile offenders and specially-abled make a mark

While some students with all the necessary resources and physical abilities failed to clear the SSLC examination, there are others who raised out of their limitations and made a mark.

Among them are girls lodged at the Juvenile Home for Girls in the city, students with hearing and visual impairment and a few from a special school from the outskirts of the city.

While eight girls from the Juvenile Home had attended examinations, all of them cleared it. Seven of the eight cleared it in their very first attempt. The girls are Chowdamma, Hema B, Chubbakki, Mallige, Kavya, Pavithra D and Sahana.

Chowdamma, who passed with first class marks is at the Home for the past one year. “If I had stayed at home, I could not have received any education at all. Today, I am very happy about passing the exam with good marks,” she said. To do this, she said that she studied till 11 pm every night and woke up at 5 am in the morning. All the staff of the Home and a tuition teacher who taught us, assisted a lot, she said. After completing her PUC, she wants to do BEd and be a teacher. Hailing from Shimoga, she said that she is without a father, while her mother is a day labourer.

Chubbakki, who passed with second class marks, aspires like any ambitious child, to be a doctor, and finds Science “very difficult”. She recalls how all the seven girls studied for the exam and said that she was at the Home from past two years. “I have no mother, while father does masonry,” she said.

Not impaired

While physical disability might be an impediment for a few, it is not the case with students of special schools. All the visually impaired students who appeared for examinations from two government schools from Mysore have passed the examination, said Srinivas H R, Superintendent of the Schools.
Of the 21 students with hearing impairment who appeared for the exams from these two schools, 18 students passed the examination.

Students of Rangarao memorial residential school for visually impaired girls, recorded an astounding 100 per cent result in the examination. Of the 13 girls, K M Mani and P Gayathri passed with distinction, while seven secured first class.

The Sairanga Vidyakendra, a residential school for boys with hearing impairment also recorded 100 per cent results.

Alternative school

All the children who study as ‘resident scholars’ at Kaliyuva Mane, a free alternative school for children also cleared the SSLC exam. The children belonging to various socio-economic strata, some of them with learning disabilities, cleared the examination in the first attempt in English medium.