Ever since Kerala's state Education Department announced the results of the 2019 Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) examinations for Class 10, there has been a lot of talk about one particular school, located in the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram. The Government Tribal High School in the Idinjar area, 40 kilometres from the state capital, became one among the 599 government schools in the state to secure a pass percentage of 100.
Kerala achieved a pass percent of 98.11 in this year's Class 10 SSLC examinations, even as the state faced obstacles in the form of unexpected holidays caused due to bad weather, outbreak of the Nipah virus and the devastating August floods. But what makes the Tribal school in Idinjar stand out from the rest is the fact that they had to overcome various battles, such as poverty, lack of classes, shortage of teachers and other basic necessities to ensure that each and every single student who wrote the Class 10 examinations passed.
“This was made possible because of the joint effort of the school headmaster, teachers, even the parents of the students, volunteers from various NGOs and colleges and a lot of other people,” Biju BK, a Malayalam teacher at the school, told TNM.
The school, which is located on the foothills of the Brimore estate, opposite to the Ponmudi hill station, was established in 1957, but it was only recently that the students of the school started to pass the SSLC examinations.
Biju recalled a time when not even a single student from the school was able to pass the exams. “This was the condition till about four years ago. From there to here, we have come a long way,” he added.
Out of the total 171 students studying in the school, 31 students wrote the Class 10 examinations this year. According to Biju, 90 percent of the students in the school come from Adivasi families, whereas the remaining 10 percent are children of estate workers and daily wage labourers from the nearby estates. “These students came from an environment where it is difficult to study, so we had to ensure that we made up for all their problems in the school itself.”
Overcoming challenges
The biggest challenge that the school and students had to overcome was the shortage of staff. “Apart from a few subjects like Malayalam, Physics, Social Science and Maths, there weren’t any teachers for other subjects. So we found an alternative to deal with the situation,” says Biju.
The existing teachers of the school took it upon themselves to teach the remaining subjects to these students. “The Physics teacher had a certain understanding in Chemistry also. So the Physics teacher made time to teach Chemistry to the students. Biology was taught to the Class 10 students by the middle school science teacher. And we also managed to get hold of retired professors from other schools to come and teach the students at least once a week,” said Biju.
The school had also received immense teaching support from college students who would volunteer to teach various subjects to the students. Some NGOs also gave motivational talks to the students to help prepare them mentally.
Another challenge that the school had to face was the lack of food. “These students come from underprivileged backgrounds and many of them depend on the school for good food. But the school lacked the funds needed to provide them with good food. The teachers and the headmaster solved this problem by pitching in money from their own pockets. Some of the parents of these students also helped in cooking evening snacks and lunch for the school,” added Biju.
Even as the teaching and food were taken care of, conditioning the students for the SSLC exams was still a task. From January of this year onwards, the students were divided into three groups based on their performance in mock exams held in December. These three groups were given special coaching, according to their needs, from 8.30 am to 5.30 pm every day till the day of exams.
“We had missed a lot of working days because the school was turned into a relief camp for many days due to the floods in the state last year but with the dedicated efforts of the students and teachers, we were able to overcome all the hardships and the result is there for everyone to see,” said Biju.