A daily wager's daughter from Tuticorin who lost her mother at seven just scored 1173 in her boards, but she may not be going to college: This is why 

When you've managed a more-than-impressive score in your boards like 1173/1200, there's usually very little doubt about whether you're going to college. It's more a question of 'which college'.

Not for Anandha Jothi. Not at this point anyway. With no one to tell her about college applications and deadlines and fees, she hasn't really done much about it thus far.

After her mother committed suicide when she was seven, the daughter of a daily wager in Tuticorin didn't know what to do next. Then again, most girls in the second grade wouldn't know how to deal with that crisis. 

All she had left was her father, a man who struggled every single day to give his three daughters a life worth living for — all on his own. That's precisely why he moved the family from the minuscule village of Thailapuram to Chennai four years back. The one thing that he insisted on was not getting his daughters married off — like so many of his clan were known to do. "Right from when I was young my father used to stress the importance of education, so I knew I had to do well to get admission in a good college," says Jothi, who scored 1173 in her Class 12 board exams including a centum in the Accountancy paper.
 

Her father is a mason and with what he gets, he has to support three of his daughters. Jothi says unless she gets external help to fund college tuition fee she may not be able to pursue her dream of becoming a Chartered Accountant someday

With such good scores, any college would be happy to admit her. But will she be able to continue her education? "I am not sure how my father would be able to send me to college. I haven't even applied to any course yet. He is a mason and with what he gets, he has to support three of us. Unless I get external help to fund college tuition fee I don't think I will be able to continue," says the girl who nurses a dream of becoming a Chartered Accountant someday.
 

Big score: Screenshot of Jothi's score card | Pic courtesy: tnresults.nic.in/

Jothi who studied at St. Theresa's Girls' Higher Secondary School, Pallavaram says her teachers at the school were extremely supportive and also made sure she never felt like she didn't have a mother. "They used to take special classes and I definitely wouldn't have gotten this much if not for them. I actually expected more than 1180 because of the effort put in," smiles a slightly disappointed Jothi. 

If you'd like to help Jothi make her dream of studying BCom/CA come true, please write to us at edexlive@gmail.com and we'll connect you with them