4 decades after he dropped out of school, Odisha MLA appears for Class X Boards

Bhubaneswar: More than four decades after he dropped out of school over family compulsions, 57-year-old BJD MLA Angad Kanhar from Odisha’s Kandhamal district on Friday morning walked into a high school to write his Class X board examination like hundreds of other students

Bhubaneswar: More than four decades after he dropped out of school over family compulsions, 57-year-old BJD MLA Angad Kanhar from Odisha’s Kandhamal district on Friday morning walked into a high school to write his Class X board examination like hundreds of other students.

57-year-old BJD MLA Angad Kanhar from Odisha’s Kandhamal district appeared for his Class X board examination on Friday morning. (Image used for representation). (GETTY IMAGES.)

Kanhar, a tribal MLA from Phulbani had queued up at Rujangi High School in Pitabari village of Kandhamal district to write the second language paper under the State Open School Certificate Examination. “I was not able to complete Class X due to different family issues. Recently, I learned that many have appeared for exams even at the age of 50 and more. So, I decided to take the board exams. There is no age barrier to appear for exams or to get educated,” said Kanhar, who took the exam along with his two friends, one of whom is a sarpanch.

The examination being conducted by the Board of Secondary Education began at 8 am amid tight security. A total of 5,71,909 students are appearing for the High Secondary Certificate Examination (HSC) while 9,378 and 4,443 students are writing the State Open School Certificate Examination (SOSC) and Madhyama exams, respectively in 3,540 centres. Like the National Institute of Open School, the Odisha State Open School, an autonomous body was started in 2016 under the Human Right Protection Act 1993 to allow school dropouts a chance to clear the Class X board examination without attending school.

The MLA was encouraged by members of the panchayat and his driver to take the test. “I don’t know whether I will pass the test or fail. But I wrote my paper with the intention of getting a Class X pass certificate,” said Kanhar, who dropped out of school in 1978 when he was in Class 8. In 1985, he became a sarpanch of Kerandibali panchayat and then chairman of Phiringia Panchayat Samiti and Zilla Parishad member. In 2019, he was elected as the MLA from Phulbani constituency on a BJD ticket.

In 2017, BJD MLA Rajib Patra, 46, from Kandhamal district had cleared the Class X boards, more than three decades after he dropped out of school.