JALANDHAR – Jalandhar girl Shivali has topped Punjab in the National Means-Cum Merit Scholarship Exam. Currently in Class IX, the success of Shivali, who appeared for the exam when she was in the Class VIII, is as triumphant as the story behind it. She got 109 out of 180 marks – the highest position in Punjab.
Fifteen years old Shivali, daughter of Paramjeet, a single-mother who works as a domestic help, starts her day cleaning up the house even before she goes to school. With limited resources – and the intelligent one of the three siblings (she has a brother who is also in XI standard and a younger sister – the responsibility of keeping things together – after her mother, falls on Shivali. Their father left them a few years ago. Speaking to The Tribune, she said, “It is my mother’s efforts which have brought me this far. She has given a lot of sacrifices to bring us up. I want to ne be a lawyer so that I fight a case for my mother when I grow up. I would like to get my mother justice and get put father back,” says Shivali.
Speaking on whether it’s hard to study with so many responsibilities she says, “No it isn’t. I try to finish all my works in time. I get up early and help my mother in cleaning up the house and other chores. After I come back from schools – I have to teach my brother and younger sister. So I usually finish up all my work in school itself.”
Speaking on whether the finances at home affect the studies she said, “Mostly it’s ok. My mother works really hard and comes back late in the evenings. But sometimes when her pay gets late, then we feel the constraint.”
Notably, the school that Shivali studies in has also been charting success for the past few years. For the past three years, the school has produced 9, 12, 16 and 19 toppers of the NMMS. This year as many as 19 students of the school psssed the exam, the highest in a school in Punjab.
Principal Kushdepp Kaur said, we don’t make any special efforts, just be timely and complete the syllabus on time and make the students work hard. The teachers also pay special attention to intelligent students like Shivali.
This year’s exam was conducted by NCERT in November 2015. All the students shall get annual 6,000 as scholarship. Teachers Deepak Kumar, Manjeet Kaur, Karamjeet Kaur, Ruby Bala, Prem Lata and Simarpal have been pivotal for students’ success. Notably, as many as 2,700 students had appeared from Jalandhar of which 170 passed.
