Seven of the eight students whom the National Child Labour Programme (NCLP) officials here had rescued a few years ago had cleared the Plus Two exams. The officials said S. Dharanidharan of Ponnammapet, Salem, had scored 1,093 out of 1,200. They had rescued the boy as a 12-year-old, about six years ago, at Guruvayurappan Nagar in Tirupur while working at a knitwear company.
After spending about two years at the bridge school, the officials sent him to a school in Salem, from where he had cleared the examination, the officials said.
Likewise, A.D. Kasthuri of Nallur, Tirupur, scored 840 marks. The officials had rescued her from a knitwear company in 2011-12, where she was engaged in piece cutting. V. Lavanya of Amaravathi Nagar, Cuddalore, had scored 734 marks. The officials had rescued her around six years ago from a knitwear factory in Tirupur where she was a helper.
The same was the story of Tirupur residents L. Swapnil, who had scored 541 marks, E. Jagadeesh who had scored 635 marks and B. Rajeswari who had scored 571 marks, the officials said.
The officials had also rescued V. Dinesh, a Sugunapuram resident, had completed Plus Two by scoring 677 marks. The officials had rescued him five years ago while he was rearing goat.
The officials said the rescued child labourers would get State Government's financial assistance to continue their undergraduate and post-graduate degree programmes and also placement assistance.
Just over 90 % of the 8,676 students of Department of School Education-run schools in Coimbatore have cleared the examination. Sharing the details with reporters on Wednesday, Chief Education Officer P. Ayyannan said here too the girls had outsmarted the boys with a pass percentage of 93.42. %. Only 75.56 % of the boys had cleared the examination.
Among other State Government-run schools, the pass percentage for Adi Dravida Department-run schools was 94.83, Anglo Indian schools 99.24, Coimbatore Corporation-run schools 87.35, municipality schools 86.97, and social welfare 100 per cent. Mr. Ayyannan said 12 of 80 Government Higher Secondary Schools had a 100 % pass percentage.
Poor show by Corporation schools
The 16 higher secondary schools run by the Coimbatore Corporation put up a poor show.
The over-all pass percentage of 87.3 was the lowest the schools had scored in the last three years and a sharp fall from the 91.8 the schools had recorded in 2017.
Only one school – Corporation Girls’ Higher Secondary School, Ramakrishnapuram, - saw all the students who appeared for the examination in March 2018, pass. At the bottom of the table of 16 schools was the Corporation Hr. Sec. School (co-education) R.S. Puram, which saw only 65 % of the students pass the examination.
