COIMBATORE: A 16-year-old girl from Ganjam district in Odisha -- presently a Class 11 student at Government Higher Secondary School in Velliyangadu -- has successfully cleared the Tamil Talent Search Examination (TTSE), securing 91 out of 100 marks. Under the Tamil Nadu School Education Department, the TTSE is conducted annually to encourage students who excel in Tamil language.
The student, K Jansi Rani, will receive a monthly scholarship of Rs 1,500 till she completes Class 12. “Since childhood, my sister and I have been interested in learning Tamil,” said Jansi, who was born here and whose family has been living at Vijayanagaram village in Karamadai block for 18 years. “Tamil is a beautiful language. Besides learning it at school, we decided to start speaking in Tamil among ourselves. It helped us speak and write Tamil properly. Even now, my sister and I converse in Tamil,” she said.
Expressing gratitude to the Tamil teachers of her school for encouraging her to take up the examination, Jansi said they guided the students and conducted special classes twice a day. “They utilised educational materials, such as Class 10 Tamil books and previous year question papers,” she said. Besides TTSE, Jansi has previously cleared three more scholarship examinations -- National Means Cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme (NMMS), Tamil Nadu Rural Students Talent Search Examination (TRuST), and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister’s Talent Search Examination (TNCMTSE). “It’s not an easy task, but she did it,” said school headmaster S Socrateeskulasekaran.