When 20-year-old B Kalaivani, a machine operator in KPR Mill's garment unit, quit her studies five years ago to supplement her family's income, she thought her dream of pursuing education was over.
Her family needed her to work in the powerloom units along with them to increase their income. But on Tuesday, she passed the higher secondary examination with a whopping 95.75% in the commerce stream.
Ever since she dropped out in Class 9, she watched her former classmates walk towards the school, while she would be heading towards the powerloom unit. "I wanted to study, but I could not ask my parents to allow me to go school given the financial mess we were in," she said.
"Three years ago I joined the garment unit and right away started preparing for class 10. Though it was hard to remember concepts and get back to routine after a two-year gap, I concentrated hard and I managed to score 440 out of 500," she said. Incidentally, her elder sisters who work in KPR mills have completed diploma and gradutation as they worked.
After an 8am to 5pm workshift, Kalaivani takes a one-hour break and opens her books at 6pm sharp at the classroom in their hostel. "Classes are conducted by teachers from 7pm to 10pm. I usually start revising an hour earlier and study for an hour after classes finish," she said. "When I called my parents to tell them my scores, they started crying in happiness," she added.
S Gomathi, 18, a droput from Namakkal chose KPR Mills to work after hearing about the work and study opportunity. "For two years, I sent my parents my full salary of Rs 6,000 and kept studying here," she said. The girl passed with 93.1%.
Like Kalaivani and Gomathi, 164 workers of different age groups in KPR Mills cleared the Plus Two exams with 10 of them scoring more than 1000.
After completing Class 12, girls are allowed to enrol for courses at Bharathiar University or Tamil Nadu Open University. "In the garment unit we offer classes for five under-graduate courses like B Com, B Com CA, BBA, BLit and BCA and post-graduate courses like MBA, MCA and M Com," said an in house BBA teacher, Sharanya Gurunathan. "Every Sunday and one other day of the week, professors from Bharathiar University or NET come to teach the students," she said.
While each of KPR Mills' units has around six to seven in-house teachers who have completed their B Ed, they have a tie-up with the National Education Trust (NET), who sends teachers for main subjects every day to the unit to educate the girls.
Her family needed her to work in the powerloom units along with them to increase their income. But on Tuesday, she passed the higher secondary examination with a whopping 95.75% in the commerce stream.
Ever since she dropped out in Class 9, she watched her former classmates walk towards the school, while she would be heading towards the powerloom unit. "I wanted to study, but I could not ask my parents to allow me to go school given the financial mess we were in," she said.
"Three years ago I joined the garment unit and right away started preparing for class 10. Though it was hard to remember concepts and get back to routine after a two-year gap, I concentrated hard and I managed to score 440 out of 500," she said. Incidentally, her elder sisters who work in KPR mills have completed diploma and gradutation as they worked.
After an 8am to 5pm workshift, Kalaivani takes a one-hour break and opens her books at 6pm sharp at the classroom in their hostel. "Classes are conducted by teachers from 7pm to 10pm. I usually start revising an hour earlier and study for an hour after classes finish," she said. "When I called my parents to tell them my scores, they started crying in happiness," she added.
S Gomathi, 18, a droput from Namakkal chose KPR Mills to work after hearing about the work and study opportunity. "For two years, I sent my parents my full salary of Rs 6,000 and kept studying here," she said. The girl passed with 93.1%.
Like Kalaivani and Gomathi, 164 workers of different age groups in KPR Mills cleared the Plus Two exams with 10 of them scoring more than 1000.
After completing Class 12, girls are allowed to enrol for courses at Bharathiar University or Tamil Nadu Open University. "In the garment unit we offer classes for five under-graduate courses like B Com, B Com CA, BBA, BLit and BCA and post-graduate courses like MBA, MCA and M Com," said an in house BBA teacher, Sharanya Gurunathan. "Every Sunday and one other day of the week, professors from Bharathiar University or NET come to teach the students," she said.
While each of KPR Mills' units has around six to seven in-house teachers who have completed their B Ed, they have a tie-up with the National Education Trust (NET), who sends teachers for main subjects every day to the unit to educate the girls.