BHUBANESWAR: The annual HSC exam results, announced by the Board of Secondary Education on Sunday, has brought to fore several stories of determination and hardwork. Despite hailing from poor socio-economic backgrounds, several students across the state have scored the highest A1 grade in the exams overcoming odds.
While Ashutosh Sahu of Ravenshaw Collegiate school scored 552 marks out of 600 to secure an A1 grade, another Cuttack student of N Vidyapeetha Soumyaranjan Parida also bagged A1 by scoring 540 marks. Ashutosh is the son of taxi driver Ashok Sahu and Soumyaranjan’s father Santosh Panda is an LIC agent. The two students studied close to 10 hours a day to score outstanding results and both want to become doctors.
Rupa Sa, a student of Giridhari high school in Belpahar of Jharsuguda, also scored above 90 per cent marks to get A1. Daughter of a fruit-seller Om Prakash Sa, Rupa did not take any tuition and studied for 10 to 12 hours at home to excel in the exam. “My parents cannot afford tuition fees. So, I relied mostly on what my teachers taught in the class and the study materials from the e-library in my school,” she said.
Like Rupa, Gayatri Patra of Kakatpur could not take tuition. Daughter of a bangle-seller, she scored 555 marks of 600 and aspires to study further to become a doctor. “There is no substitute to hardwork. I want to pursue MBBS to change my family’s plight,” she said.
Another girl of Kakatpur, Subha Priyadarshini Das secured 542 marks to score the top grade. “I want to become an IAS officer,” said Subha, who is the daughter of a farmer.
In Bhubaneswar, a group of child labourers who had dropped out of school, have cleared the examination. Belonging to various slums in the city, A Santu, Anand Reddy, Shamsundar Behera, N Raju, G Raju, Barsha Pradhan and Chandan Sahu collected plastic bottles from garbage dumps and worked at the railway station to eke out a living. Rescued by a city-based NGO Aashayen last year, they were enrolled for remedial classes by it and appeared for the examination. All the seven passed with B2, C, D and E grades.