S. Priya’s favourite hobby is playing chess and she can defeat her relatives with ease.
This took a backseat for a few months as the teenager would wake up at 4 a.m., study until 7 a.m. and then spend all evening studying again. Her hard work paid off as Priya, with a score of 357/400, secured the 10{+t}{+h}rank in the State list of hearing impaired students who passed class X. A resident of Otteri, Priya’s father is a daily wage labourer while her mother works at a garment making and export unit.
“Mathematics was a little difficult for her,” one of her teachers at the Little Flower Convent School for the Deaf, said, adding the rest of the papers were easy. A dancer, Priya, plans to study computer science in college. The school for visually impaired also had reason to cheer, as two students made it to the State list of toppers.
M. Andal, ranked first with a score of 477 and M. Muniswari scored 459, making it to the eighth rank. Andal from Vellore district, stays with one of her older brothers, as her parents have passed away. “I did not study too much, except during the exams. But we had excellent training from our teachers,” the 15-year-old said. Her goal is to study English literature in college and then to become an Indian Administrative Service officer, she said. Andal’s classmate B. Nandini Devi scored 480, but since she studied in English medium, she did not make it to the topper’s list.This year’s class X scores are the highest the Government Higher Secondary School for the Blind has seen in 36 years, said principal, V. Gopal. B. Mohamed Adhunan, who scored 466, secured fourth rank, while another student, C. Boopathi was ninth with 458 marks. Another visually impaired State rank-holder is A. Premkumar of St. Louis Institute for the Deaf and the Blind. With a score of 457, he is ranked 10{+t}{+h}in the list.
