Studying By Candlelight, 16-Year-Old Son Of A Farmer Nails Class 10 Exam With Perfect 10 CGPA

Hundreds of students in Bareilly district have scored a perfect 10 CGPA but 16-year-old Rampal Verma stands apart. It has taken him blood, sweat and tears to join the ranks of the toppers in the district, studying by candlelight and going to a neighbour's house when the candle went off.

Son of a poor farmer, Rampal's father Bhagwan Das earns about Rs 2,000 a month, toiling in the fields of Pilibhit. But this never deterred his father, a school dropout, from aspiring for proper education for his three children, who he sent to Bareilly and enrolled them in good private schools.

Giving credit to his father for his success, Rampal said, "My father always wanted us to get proper education and hence, he got me enrolled in a reputed private school of the city. He borrows money at 5% interest to pay for our schooling and pays back the loan after harvesting the sugarcane crop. However, this time, we are yet to pay the fees of Class X. As I am good in studies, the school officials allowed me to write the exams."

BCCL

Rampal is a student of Woodrow School. He lives with his siblings in a single room with a tin roof in Sidharthnagar area here. He shares the room with his older brother Purushottam, a Class XII student, and younger sister Hemvati, who is promoted to Class X.

"My father somehow managed to get an electricity connection in the room. However, I had to study in candlelight during the long power cuts in the area. As I could not afford to use more than one candle a day after it got over, I would go to a neighbour's house to study," said Rampal. He aspires to become a doctor one day.

Unable to buy books, Rampal borrowed NCERT books from his seniors but could not arrange expensive books and test papers that his peers had. "My friends used to lend me books of prominent authors and test papers for a couple of days. I used to make the best use of these books," he said.

"My father has been working very hard to support our education. I could inform him about my result only in the night as he and my mother were busy working in the fields the entire day and couldn't receive my call," said Rampal. He now wants to take admission in Kendriya Vidyalaya to finish his schooling.

Like Rampal, Ankita Mishra, 15, who secured 8.2 CGPA also battled odds to achieve success. She assists her father in his photostat shop by working there for over four hours every day. "After school hours, I would sit in my father's shop and help him in dealing with customers. My marks were affected as I got little time to study in the shop," she said.