Trio from nomad tribe makes it big in Boards

CHENNAI: State’s Class 10 and 12 Board exam results this year, these three deserve a pride of place.

The trio, belonging to a nomadic tribal community (Boom Boom Mattukaran), from the Apparakudi village of Nagapattinam has won over societal, financial and academic struggles to score high marks.

S Santhosh, V Mukesh, and P Mullai Barathan, hail from Apparakudi village, where most of the families reel from financial constraints.

The support from Vanavil Trust in the form of evening classes proved a boon in their determination to clear Board exams with good marks.

The parents of these students, being thavil artists and daily wagers, earn a meagre salary and the families struggle to make ends meet.

The trust not only helped them prepare for the Board exams but also provided them with nutritious food after the classes so that they won’t go to bed hungry or suffer from malnutrition.

Santhosh, who studied Tamil medium in a government school in Katchanam, scored 410 marks out of 500 in Class 10. As Santhosh cannot afford tuition or other coaching classes, he joined Vanavil’s evening classes.

“I have been attending the evening classes to prepare better for the Board exam. The evening classes are conducted between 7 to 9 pm for students of classes 10, 11 and 12. For students like me, such guidance helps us score better marks,” said Santhosh.

Santhosh, with the ambition to pursue Civil Services, has planned to take the Biology/Maths stream.

Likewise, Mukesh scored 337 marks out of 500 in Class 10. Mukesh, who has a fascination for numbers, is planning to take the Commerce stream.

Class 12 student Mullai Barathan scored 375 marks out of 600 and is preparing to join an arts college and has applied for the same in his home district.

M Perilagan, a coach at Vanavil who trained these students since they were in Class 7, said, “As I knew these students since then, I am familiar with their financial and academic struggles. I am glad they performed well, beating societal and other hurdles.”

‘Corp-run schools are short on teachers for Class 10, 12’

With schools of the Greater Chennai Corporation recording good results in both Classes 10 and 12 board exams, the focus now shifts to filling vacancies for teacher posts in some of these schools.

One of the best performing Chennai corporation school in both Classes 10 and 12 does not have adequate numbers of mathematics teachers, forcing the management to combine two sessions.

A Greater Chennai Corporation source said, “The corporation school with a high number of students in both classes 9 and 10 have been struggling without adequate mathematics teachers. For about 250 students, the school only has three maths teachers, unable to cater to the required demand”

A class 10 student of the corporation school told DT NEXT that there are more than five sections in class 10, and due to shortage of maths teachers, two classes are combined.

“At the beginning of the academic year, a trainee teacher took classes for us. After she quit, we had to switch to another class during maths period,” she added. The combined maths classes went on throughout the academic year, she said.

Meanwhile, a corporation school teacher said that corporation schools in north Chennai are also facing teacher shortage.

“During teachers counselling, most teachers ask for a shift to south Chennai or central Chennai corporation schools. This leads to vacancies in north Chennai schools, ultimately affecting students, “the teacher pointed out. Commenting on this, a senior GCC official said they will be soon conducting general transfers and deployments to fill teacher vacancies.