Indrani (Murshidabad), April 16: A bead of sweat trickled down Kadam Sheikh’s forehead as he waited outside his examiner’s room this morning.

The 40-year-old farmer had turned up for a literacy test. By the time, he was out of the room, the bead of sweat had been replaced by a teardrop — for having made his teacher proud. The teacher, as nervous as Kadam, is his son Asadul, a Class XI student.

Asadul and many other students of Indrani Hasna Mayanee High School are on a literacy mission, and they have started at home.

For students of this co- educational school, teaching parents to read and write is their subject for work education, which carries 50 marks.

District inspector of schools (secondary) Subhashis Sanyal said this was the first time work education had such a “unique” subject.

“It is a major step towards eradicating illiteracy,” he added.

More than 250 mothers and fathers appeared for the literacy test at the high school today. About 300 more are expected tomorrow.

Asadul said he was proud to teach his father, who had never had a chance to go to school.

“The work education teacher gave us the subject six months ago. We were told to teach our father or mother…. My mother has studied up to Class III, but my father never went to school. He was initially hesitant but started taking interest after some time,” he said.

The parents were ushered into the school office one by one, where the work education teacher, Mir Ashraf Ali, asked them to write their name and address. Then they were given a passage in Bengali to read aloud.

“I decided to give Kadam Sheikh 70 per cent,” Ali said.

Nazrifa Bibi, 32, too, cleared the test and couldn’t find words to thank her daughter, Class VI student Sabina Yasmin, and the school.

Headmaster Syed Taufiq said the teachers had visited the students’ homes about six months ago to meet the parents.

“It was part of our endeavour to improve the quality of teaching in the school. We found that many of the guardians were illiterate and, therefore, unable to help out their children. So we decided to make them literate through the work education subject,” Taufiq said.