CHENNAI: The jail blocks are going to be pretty jubilant this year, after all the 65 candidates save for one, who wrote the twelfth standard exams from prisons across the State, managed to pass.
But that isn’t reason enough to have a cell block party.
This year, young Karthik Kannan, a juvenile serving time at the Borstal School in Pudukkottai managed a whopping 1062/1200, bettering the 961 scored last year. Karthik, who was convicted and has been serving a seven-year sentence for rape, may be released from prison next month on grounds of good behaviour and these great results.
Much like the general results this year, all top marks have gone to people from jails outside the capital city.
“We’re extremely proud at how well these men and young lads have done. They’ve not just been taught by our inmates who are qualified, but also by teachers from NGOs and this has made the difference,” said a senior official with the Prisons Department.
Some of the other people who managed great marks are Syed Mohammed Buhari from Coimbatore (1059) and curiously enough, Anandan M, a 33-year-old known offender, who has been serving sentence after arrest under the Goondas Act in 2014, making him the only person from Puzhal II (where remand prisoners are kept), to get such a fabulous result.
In all, 25 inmates from Puzhal wrote their boards this year and managed to do quite well.
In 2014, only 50 out of 56 prisoners who appeared for the exams had passed and the first mark scored by a prisoner was 961, prison sources said.
This year, the top three marks scored by the prisoners are above 1,000.
Deputy Inspector General of Prisons (Headquarters) AG Mourya attributed the improvement in performance to the arrangements made by the respective Superintendents of Prisons for tuitions by teachers, some even brought from outside.
Officials said that the model examinations conducted for prisoners in several Central prisons also helped in improving their performance.