The achievement of six students from Kaliyuva Mane stands out as an example for others to emulate. They have passed with flying colours in the SSLC examination, results of which were announced on Thursday.
M. Shwetha, K. Manukumar, S.M. Renukaswamy, M. Rajeshwari, P. Dhanush, and Shivaraj are first generation learners and had dropped out of school due to domestic compulsions.
Kaliyuva Mane is run by Divya Deepa Charitable Trust at Kenchalagudu village on the Manadavadi Road and the institution strives to provide education to the underprivileged section of society through alternative modes of learning. Students, all of whom are drop outs at various stages, learn and educate themselves at their own pace and are gradually mainstreamed.
M.R. Ananth, Managing Trustee of the trust said in a press release that two of them had secured a first class.
“All of them belong to educationally backward rural areas. Each one of them has crossed social, economic, educational, emotional hurdles successfully and reached the goal. All children have cleared the exam in English medium,” said Mr. Ananth. The release said the achievement of the students held out hope for millions of children who had remained out of the ambit of education system in spite of government's initiatives such as opening of free schools, distribution of free lunch, uniforms and cycles, free progress system etc. Their achievement is all the more significant when viewed in the light of Annual Status of Education Report as per which only 48.2 per cent of Class 5 students in rural areas can read text books for Class 2 in their mother tongue, while there are no proper schools for more than 51.8 per cent of children of rural India.