At 61, he wrote his SSLC exam with scores of 16-year-olds

Age is no bar for many candidates who took the SSLC exams, the results of which were out on Monday.

A candidate as old as 61 years had registered for writing the SSLC exam this year.

Each year, lakhs of students appear for the Class 10 examinations. This year, 7,44,461 freshers took the exams. There were several others who wrote the exam for the second time as they were unable to clear it the previous time. Some candidates who had appeared as private candidates were also those whose age was much higher than the usual 16.

While some were in their 60s, the others were there in 50s and 40s. A good number of these candidates had discontinued education due to inevitable circumstances and later wished to appear for the exam.

When DH tried to reach out to such candidates who had taken up exams after a long break from studies, many spoke about the hardships while the others had not even checked their results.

Some of them had prepared well for the examinations while the others took just a few subject papers as they could not find time from their routine chores.

For 56-year-old Range Gowda, it was an experience to cherish. "I wrote only two subjects this time as I had other commitments. I had prepared for English and Kannada and I hope to have passed the exam," said Gowda, who hails from Alur taluk in Hassan district.

For some of these candidates, getting promotions on the professional front is also a driving force to take the exam.

"I work as a driver in the Panchayat Office. I would be promoted if I clear SSLC exams. That is the reason I wrote the exam. However, with elections coming in between, I could not concentrate well on the exam," he added, "I got busy due to the upcoming elections and have not checked the results yet."

Mahammad Haneef, a 55-year-old who had registered for the exam said that he took help from his relatives to prepare for the exam. Haneef, who works in a hardware shop in Dakshina Kannada district, had taken a break from studies after completing Class seven. "Back then, I was not aware that education would be this important. There is so much of a change now. I realised that it carried a lot of value and hence decided to write the exams," he said. Haneef had to discontinue education owing to financial constraints.