CHENNAI: Some 1,500 students, mostly children of indigent farm workers and fisherfolk in Tiruvallur district, are today writing their higher secondary or SSLC examinations, thanks to the efforts of the Ramakrishna Math, Chennai.

The students, many of them children of unlettered fathers and mothers, have been coached in 16 centres run by the math's volunteers.

According to N. Kanagaraj, coordinator of the classes, nearly 40 teachers from rural areas, about half of them full-time workers, helped prepare the students for their board examinations; they are paid Rs. 3,000 by the math .

The mutt's volunteers took their outreach efforts to the remote villages of the Tiruvalluvar district, after their signal success in coaching students from a slum near the Ambedkar Bridge, Mylapore, and achieving significant results. Mr. Kanagaraj says the math also made arrangements to provide food for the students a month before the board examinations, besides arranging transport from their homes to the examination venues.

Last year, 85 per cent of the Plus-Two students they coached emerged successful and 77 per cent of the SSLC students passed. About 70 per cent of the learners are girls.

Nursing course

According to Mr. Kanagaraj, the math is also providing girls from rural areas, who have completed Class X or XII, nursing training. It takes care of the fees, uniforms and books during the one-year training.

After completion of training, it arranges for their employment in hospitals in the city and its suburbs. The math plans to have 300 girls in its course this year.

Computer training

This is not all; youngsters from Pazhaverkadu, Gnayiru, Guruvoyal and Meyyur villages are being trained in handling computers through four centres set up with machines donated by the Lions Club of Nungambakkam. The math offers four months' training and help in placement.

According to Mr. Kanagaraj, Swami Gautamananda, president of the Ramakrishna Math, Chennai is the moving spirit behind the whole enterprise; if sufficient funds were available, the math would expand the tuition programme to cover more villages.

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