KOCHI: For 16-year-old Monika Mukesh, who hails from a migrant family, acing Malayalam was not much of a challenge. This youngster, whose family hails from Madhya Pradesh, had a foolproof formula: converse with Malayali students and get fluent in Malayalam. And she did it with a flourish.
When the SSLC results were announced on Friday, Monika, a student at Irumpanam VHSS, scored a full A+. She is one of the three students hailing from migrant families to score a full A+. The other two students are from Tamil Nadu — K Hariprasad from GHSS Cheranelloor and Harshika B from GHSS Muppathadam.
But Monika’s case is different from the other two. “I came along with my family when I was six-years old. That was in 2016. I was enrolled in the school’s Class I soon after arriving,” Monika told TNIE. The initial days were tough for Monika and her elder sister, who is now doing a BA in Economics.
“My father had arrived in Kerala around four or five years before he brought us from our village in Madhya Pradesh. When we joined the school, the Roshini project helped us learn Malayalam. But I soon realised that in order to be better at a language, communicating in it is of utmost importance,” said Monika, who aims to crack the UPSC exam and join the Indian Police Service.
Once I began conversing in Malayalam, I found that the subject was easy, she added. “Then with additional help from my teachers, things became very easy,” said Monika, whose father Mukesh Singh earns a living by running a roadside eatery.
Monika, who has two younger brothers studying in the same school, wants to take up the science stream for Plus I. “If I don’t get it, the second option is commerce,” she added.
One thing Monika reiterated was that she and her family will never return to Madhya Pradesh. “We might go out of Kerala for higher studies, but my home will always be the state,” she added.
Meanwhile, under the Roshni scheme implemented by the Ernakulam district administration for children from other states, 90 children hailing from migrant families studying in 14 schools appeared for the SSLC 2026 batch exams. All of them qualified for higher studies. One student each from VHSS Irumpanam, GHSS Muppathadam and GHSS Cheranalloor schools secured an A+ in all subjects. A student of SNHS, Thrikkanarvattam school, secured an A+ in nine subjects.
