Meghalaya students who worked as labourers excel

Mysuru: Two students from Meghalaya, who wrote the SSLC examination as private candidates with Kannada as their first language, cleared the examination with flying colours. Prior to restarting their learning, they worked as labourers.
Kitdor Lang Ngdup, 19, and Anamika Ghosh, who stopped her formal education after class VIII, are the two achievers. Ngdup, who hails from East Khasi Hills district in Meghalaya and was working as a labourer until two years ago, secured 539 marks, while Ghosh secured 374 marks. Both of them took Kannada as their first language and Sanskrit as their third language and wrote examinations in English.
Ngdup studied until class VIII in a school run by Pejawar Mutt in Mysuru and was an inmate of the mutt. He dropped out of formal schooling when he was 14 years old. "During my stay at Pejawar Mutt, a volunteer, Ravi Kiran Rao, influenced me to pursue a good education. His words of encouragement made me restart my studies. I took two years to write the examination," he told TOI.
Ngdup decided to join the PCMC combination in the I PUC and aims to become a computer scientist. Ghosh, who hails from Rilbong, Meghalaya, said she will pursue her higher studies in humanities. "I lost my mother during my high school days, and then I stopped my formal schooling," she said.
Ngdup and Ghosh have received support from Kaliyuva Mane, an organisation helping underprivileged students to clear exams such as SSLC and PUC. Ananth Kumar, founder of Kaliyuva Mane, said it is one of the happiest moments. "Twelve children from diverse backgrounds appeared for the SSLC examination. All of them cleared the examination," he said.