Meet Nahul, the son of a tribal head in Kerala who scored A Plus in all subjects in SSLC exams

Frequent power interruptions, poor net connectivity, cultural and language disconnect. Being someone who belongs to one of the most backward communities in Kerala, 15-year-old Nahul had to face a plethora of challenges to stay afloat and pursue his dreams.

However, after the state government announced the results of the SSLC examination (Class X examinations) on Wednesday, the tribal colony at Kalliyottu in Kasaragod, where Nahul resides, celebrated. He had scored an A Plus grade in all subjects. This is an achievement, considering the barriers that he had to overcome. He belongs to the Malavettruvan tribe, a community of hunters and is the son of the community head N Narayanan.

“There are two government employees in our hamlet and I too wanted my children to secure government jobs. Nahul was good in studies right from the primary classes and teachers used to encourage him saying he has a good future. He is the youngest of my three children. Both my daughters have completed graduated from school,” said Narayanan, beaming with pride.

Last year was also a year of uncertainty. In a jiffy, classes went digital across Kerala. To make matters worse, Nahul and his sister had to share a single mobile phone. “There was only one phone and I had to share it with my sister. We couldn’t follow classes streamed by the KITE-VICTERS  channel due to language problems. Our teachers used to clear the doubts through WhatsApp and the two-month offline revision crash course at the school at the fag-end of the academic year helped me a lot,” said Nahul. “Usually, I revise lessons during the night. But it was a struggle to download the notes due to poor network connectivity. My sisters Namitha and Nikitha helped me a lot,” he said

Nahul and his parents thank the teachers at the government school in Kalliyottu for having guided him. His father is a farm labourer while his mother Mambi works under the employment guarantee scheme. Narayanan leads the colony where 55 families reside.