November 8, 2018:
She was happy she scored 98%, but also a bit sad to lose out on two marks.
On re-election in 2016, the LDF government in Kerala had made it clear that it was committed to ensuring 100% literacy & providing access to education to every single person in the state.
On Wednesday in a gesture that certainly furthers those promises, the state’s education minister gifted a laptop to a 96-year-old woman who made history by becoming the oldest person to clear the state’s literacy exam as part of the ‘Aksharalaksham’ mission.
Old Lady Karthyayini Amma, who scored 98 marks out of 100 in the literacy exam at the age of 96 last month, had expressed her desire to learn how to operate a computer & also to write the class 10 equivalency exam soon.
On Wednesday, C Raveendranath, the education minister, visited her home in Cheppad in Alappuzha district & gifted her the laptop.
Apparently overjoyed Karthayayini Amma who was taken by surprise with the gift, impressed the minister by typing her own name in English on the laptop.
When Minister was told him that the nonagenarian wanted a computer, he visited a shop nearby & bought a Dell laptop worth Rs 25,000 & gifted it to her in an official capacity.
Public education director KV Mohan Kumar accompanied the minister.
Karthyayini Amma, who never went to school in her life & raised her family by working as a sweeper & domestic help, lives with her children, grandchildren & great-grandchildren at a humble home in Cheppad.
Amma enrolled herself for the literacy exam earlier this year & spent months preparing for the exam in August with the help of a teacher.
Amma told the Reporters last month that she was happy she scored 98%, but also a bit sad to lose out on two marks. She added she wanted to study as long as she was healthy.
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