Pooja said, “I studied very hard to score more than 90% in my SSC examinations. Because my house is very small, I always preferred to study in school, where they would hold extra classes after school hours.”
Most children appearing for their board exams are provided with a good diet as they prepare for the mental ordeal lying ahead. But the occasional lack of groceries at home did not distract Pooja Palekar as she studied for her SSC exams. Pooja, the daughter of a truck driver, and a student with Matrubhumi Education Society at Kandivli, scored 91.40% in the exams this year.
Pooja lives with her parents and three elder sisters in the slum area of Janupada. Her eldest sister has just graduated and is struggling to find a job, the second sister is in the final year of her degree course, and the third sister is in the first year.
Pooja said, “I studied very hard to score more than 90% in my SSC examinations. Because my house is very small, I always preferred to study in school, where they would hold extra classes after school hours.”
Explaining her family's finances, she said, “My father is the only breadwinner in our family. He drives a truck in Mumbai. My mother is a housewife. My three sisters have financed their own education. They always worked during their vacations, and used their savings to pay for their college education. I may also have to do the same when I am done with HSC.”
The size of the family made it hard to make ends meet, she said. “Since we are six family members, the groceries would get over early. So we had to borrow a neighbour's ration card to buy grain with. But I never got distracted by such things and concentrated on my studies. My father took a lot of trouble to educate us.”
Palekar is the topper from her school. She has scored 100 out of 100 in Maths. Her school has also tied up with an NGO named Inseed, which helps the underprivileged sections of society. The objective of this NGO is to provide computer education and vocational training, ultimately bringing about an improvement in the literacy rate. The NGO works in both adult and child education, and has experts at hand to provide education in English and Maths, besides other subjects.
Palekar wants to take admission in the Science stream. She has applied to various colleges through the online admission process of the Mumbai University. She is inclined to opt for an engineering course in future, but is not sure about it.
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