Odisha woman dropped out of school 18 yrs ago, clears Class 10 exam with son

While the woman scored 203 marks and passed with D-grade, her son cleared the exam with C-grade scoring 340 marks.

Eighteen years after she dropped out of school, a tribal anganwadi worker in backward Malkangiri district has set an example for others by clearing the matric examination along with her son.

The tribal anganwadi worker in Malkangiri is seen here with her son.

Basanti Muduli, an anganwadi worker from C-colony under Karlakota grampanchayat of Malkangiri’s Korukonda block had left her studies shortly after her marriage. But last week, the 36-year-old could hardly hide her tears of joy after she cleared the matriculation or Class 10 board examination conducted by Odisha State Open School, 18 years after she dropped out of school.

“My failure in clearing the matric exam always rankled me. I also realised that without clearing the matric, I possibly could not get any promotion,” said Muduli, whose joy was doubled as her elder son Sibananda cleared the exam in his first attempt.

Muduli said her husband Laba Pattanayak and son Sibananda helped her in studying. “I used to study from the books of my son. She used to teach me everything that was taught at the school,” said Muduli, who enrolled in Kudumulgumma high school as a student of State Open School Board.

While Muduli scored 203 marks and passed with D-grade, her son cleared the exam with C-grade scoring 340 marks.

Her husband, Laba Pattanayak said he would like his wife to study further. Newly elected MP from Nabarangpur, Ramesh Chandra Majhi, said people like Muduli were inspiration for people of Malkangiri and Nabarangpur. “I hope more and more dropouts enrol and study further,” said Majhi.

Last year, a father-son and mother-son duo of Balasore district had cleared the matric exam in a similar fashion. Vice-president of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Balasore unit Arun Bej and his son Biswajit Bej, both school dropouts, cleared the Class 10 exam long after they stopped going to school. Similarly, housewife Tapai Pradhan in Jaleswar block of Balasore, who had dropped out of school and her 16-year-old son Bikash too cleared the matric exam on the same day.