Boy defeats cerebral palsy to score 77%

Updated on: Thursday, May 21, 2009

Kolkata: As the results of over half a lakh students who appeared for the Class XII ISC examination came out on Wednesday, almost every successful candidate said they had prevailed over some obstacle or the other. A select few, however, had overcome seemingly insurmountable challenges. Mohit Mehta was one of them.

The boy from St Joseph’s College, Bowbazar which incidentally also produced the ISC national topper — scored a 77% aggregate in his schoolleaving examination despite suffering from cerebral palsy.

Diagnosed with the condition at the age of one and a half years, the Bhowanipore resident bettered his Class X tally of 66% with a 78% in English and accounts, 80% in Hindi, 72% in environmental studies and 69% in economics this time around.

“Not only did Mohit have a mobility problem, his handwriting is illegible as well. Even though the Council has made provisions for a writer, explaining concepts to a junior student during the course of an exam is difficult and tedious,” this mother Alka Mehta divulged. She, along with her businessman husband, had been instrumental in ensuring that Mohit had as normal a childhood as possible.

“I was determined to back Mohit despite his predicament. I sent him to an established Montessori and subsequently to a local school. Although I was unsure of how he would cope, he dealt with the situation very well. Then, I decided to shift him to a bigger school and he has been in St Joseph’s since Class II,” she said.

“For these exams, he studied for about four to five hours a day and took tuitions for accounts and economics. The school authorities and his friends were of huge help,” his mother added.

Despite having pursued commerce in high school, now the Himesh Reshammiya fan is looking forward to a career in law. “Since I was young, my family and friends have told me that I’ve got good argumentative skills. I will take the competitive law exams. The National University of Juridical Sciences will be my first-choice,” Mohit declared.

Educationtimes

Boy defeats cerebral palsy to score 77%

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