A school in the city celebrated even a 50 per cent in the board exams.

Not just that. A Class XII girl who will appear for a supplementary exam was told she is a champion.

And why not?

Rupashi Das comes from a family where her elder brother washed cars to run the home. Rupashi helps her younger sister with cerebral palsy do her chores. The
family didn’t have enough money to repair the roof of their house that was blown away by Cyclone Amphan in May 2020.

Rupashi scored a 64.8 per cent in the CBSE. She will appear for a supplementary exam in physics.

Sk Farhan lives in a one-room dwelling in a densely populated slum near Park Circus railway station. The family of six have limited access to electricity and sanitation. Overcoming the daily challenges of noise, overcrowding and financial insecurity, the teenager cleared Class XII with 51.3 per cent.

On Thursday, the last day before the school closed for summer vacation, Future Hope celebrated the success of these students in the CBSE Class X and XII exams.

Eighteen students appeared for Class X and another 18 for Class XII. They
cut a cake and thanked the teachers.

“A lot of our time goes to these kids, who are struggling, than those who are self-motivated,” said Sujata Sen, CEO, Future Hope.

Of the 18 in Class XII, two scored above 90 per cent and six scored in the 80s.

In Class X, one student got 90.6 per cent and two scored in the 80s.

Others in both classes scored in the 70s and 60s.

When Hamiroon Nesha’s marks were announced in front of her peers and teachers on Friday, emotions overwhelmed the 17-year-old. She got 87 per cent.

The girl scored a 100 in commercial art. She is the first one in Future Hope to have scored a 100, her teacher said.

Let alone a room, often Hamiroon struggles to find a quiet corner in her home in a slum near Ballygunge.

“There is smoke from cooking, noise from the neighbourhood and sometimes stench, too. But I would tell myself that if I can sail through this period, I can fight my poverty. But if I lose this period, I will be sucked in by this filth around me,” she said.

In its years of service to society and plucking students out of their circumstances, the school faced stiff resistance, too.

Sometimes, the families of students stand in the way.

“The families lack understanding. They think that their child has finished Class XII so now they need to go out and earn. Circumstances become difficult, and the students get pulled back into those circumstances,” said Sen.

A major part of Future Hope’s task is to counsel the families so the students do not drop out. Most of their parents struggle to make ends meet. Sending their children to school is a luxury they cannot afford.

The teachers appeal to the parents to give them space to study, a corner to keep their books, or to allow them to be in school till 8pm so they can study.

“There are times when there is a breakdown. But then one has to rise up again,” said a Class X girl.

Sometimes students get demotivated. But Future Hope sees that they go to college or do skill-based courses.

“We don’t let them go midway or after they complete Class XII, because then
the work is only half done,” said one of those behind the organisation.

“We have to send them to college and make them independent. We have to support them to get them out of their circumstances. They have to become graduates and get jobs. Only then is our job done,” said Sen.

Rupashi, Farhan, Hami-roon and their friends still have a long way to go.