Fiddling with her new tab, her prized gift from parents on scoring full A plus in the SSLC examination, Chitralekha N., a student of Thrikkanarvattom SN Higher Secondary School, was already nurturing dreams of becoming a doctor one day.
The teenager, who is originally from Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu but has done her entire schooling in Kochi, claims that the result was least surprising as she expected it all along.
“I want to do biomaths now,” said Chitralekha, who is among the two students to score full A plus under the Roshni project being run for migrant students in select government and aided schools in the district. Sivakumar of Government Vocational Higher Secondary School, Irumpanam, is the other student.
Of the 62 students under the project from nine schools across the district who registered for the SSLC exam, 59 became eligible for higher studies. While two failed, one could not appear for the exam as he was away at his native place.
“We will continue to extend help to all the three students under the Roshni project to enable them to clear the exam under the Save a Year initiative,” said C.K. Prakash, general coordinator, Roshni.
The project was run in 35 schools across the district, benefiting 1,222 students in the last academic year. It uses code-switching as the main pedagogical tool, which involves a speaker alternating between two or more languages during a single conversation.
Since its launch three years ago, the project has won accolades from all corners and was even hailed as an initiative worth State-wide emulation in the Governor’s policy address earlier this year.
It is being implemented jointly by the Education Department, Sarva Shiksha Abhyan, and the district administration with the help of trained volunteers.