: By displaying a sterling performance in the Tamil Nadu Rural Students Talent Search Examination (TRUST) 2022, students of Government Higher Secondary School at Velliangadu in Mettupalayam Taluk have made their alma mater a cynosure of all eyes.
Thirteen out of Coimbatore district’s quota of 100 students to derive utility of TRUST conducted by the Directorate of Government Exam, entitling each to scholarship of ₹ 1,000 per annum for a maximum period of four years, belong to this institution in an interior rural location. The amount may be modest, but the competition, most importantly, cultivates the desire among students to excel in academic pursuits early on, the teachers explain.
Students studying in class IX appear for the exam for which questions are based on class VIII portions. The Parent Teacher Association had readily extended full support to the school to conduct extra classes and equip the students for the competitive exam.
“Students from the school have been consistently performing well in the exams such as TRUST and NMMS (National Means-cum-merit scholarship). This time, the performance of the students is a matter of immense pride for the school,” School Headmaster A. Bellie said, attributing the achievement to the dedication and extra efforts put in by teachers.
In particular, a team of three teachers: Revathi (Mathematics), Parameswaran (Social Science), Karnan (Science) provided the coaching. The winners of the scholarship constituted five boys and eight girls. The icing on the cake was the score of 87 marks by S. Ashika, the top-scorer in the district.
Chief Educational Officer R. Boopathy, who visited the school on Wednesday, said the students had indeed achieved a feat and that the school head and teachers deserve appreciation.
The school with Tamil and English mediums has a strength of 878 students in classes VI to XII, and is currently witnessing infrastructure augmentation.
Currently, there are 30 rooms in multiple buildings, and the school faces a shortage of a few classrooms.
OSAAT (One School At A Time) Educational Chairitable Trust, a volunteer-run non-profit organisation rebuilding infrastructure of rural schools in the country, initiated a project last October to build four classrooms at a cost of ₹ 50 lakh, much to the relief of the teachers, parents and the students, Mr. Bellie said.
