JAJPUR/BERHAMPUR: Beyond the numbers crunched for the all-time record results in High School Certificate (HSC) examination are the real stories of success of a girl belonging to the Mankedia tribe in Jajpur district and the visually challenged students of a school in Ambapur on the outskirts of Berhampur.
If Moneka Mankedia became the first female from the nomadic Mankedia tribe to clear the annual examination, seven girls from the Red Cross School for the Blind in Ambapur overcame the odds of impairment to keep the school’s 100 per cent success rate intact.
Moneka, who lives in Malhar Mankedia Basti under Ranhasal panchayat, overcame all challenges of a nomadic life to achieve the milestone. A student of Shramashakti High School, a Government-run institution in Tisco colony under Sukinda block of the district, she studied under the streetlights to sit for the test.
According to Khetrabasi Barik, Headmaster of Shramashakti High School, Moneka secured 268 out of 600 marks and cleared the annual HSC examination in D grade. “My daughter prepared for her exams under streetlights in our basti as we do not have a pucca house. The thatched house does not have electricity connection either,” said Ramdas, Moneka’s father.
Ramdas and his wife Sabitri are elated. “We are very happy that our daughter has cleared the HSC examination braving all odds.
I want my daughter to continue higher studies and this would be possible only with Government assistance,” the couple said. District Education Officer Krushna Chandra Nayak said Moneka’s success would encourage other children from the community to study as she will be a torch-bearer for the tribe.
A few hundred kilometres away on the fringes of Berhampur town, the Red Cross School for the Blind at Ambapur was celebrating the HSC examination results too. The school had maintained its streak of 100 per cent success rate.
As many as 11 students, including seven visually impaired girls, appeared for the test and all of them secured First Class. School Principal Nabeen Chandra Satpathy said two students secured Grade A2, eight got Grade B1 and one student got B2 grade. Since 1983, the school has been registering 100 per cent result in the Board examination, the Principal added.