Fall fails to stop boy from exam

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An ambulance entered Chennai Boys Higher Secondary School, Nungambakkam, at 9.30 am Wednesday.

R.K. Akilan, a bright class-X student of Krishnaswamy Matriculation Higher Secondary School in the same locality, did not want to miss his language paper-I despite suffering a fall from the stairs of his house and fracturing a hip bone Saturday evening.

He had come in the ambulance to his exam centre. Akilan was carried on a stretcher to a separate hall where he dictated answers to a scribe.

“I’m happy I performed well. I’ve to score good marks in other papers too,” he said after the exam.Akilan had slipped and fallen while climbing the stairs to his house in Nungambakkam.“ After he [Akilan] fell and was unable to move, we rushed him to the hospital. The same night he was operated on. We thought he wouldn’t be able to appear for the board exam, but he insisted,” said father Raghavaswamy.

“He was confident and we didn’t want to discourage him. I went to the district educational office and submitted a medical certificate. The official there said a scribe will assist. The school also helped us a lot,” said mother Kavitha.

“I read the lessons to him and this morning he took the book and revised. He will be discharged tonight [Wednesday] and the doctor has said it will take at least three months for him to recover,” she said.