LPF Enables Over 400 Youth to Get into Mainstream Education

Bengaluru, NT Bureau: The Learning Point Foundation (LPF) marked its 2024 graduation day by honouring 437 students on Saturday (August 24).

The LPF has been engaged in enabling dropouts to join the mainstream education by coaching them for NIOS exams.

As many as 222 students cleared 10th grade NIOS course while 106 passed 12th grade following their participation in coaching programmes conducted by the Foundation. Most of these students belong to localities along the Tannery Road, areas marked by rampant dropouts and under- as well as unemployment among the youth.

Social worker Sarvath Adil Khan founded the LPF in 2018 with the help of her husband. In the first year she could manage to enroll only six students. She started tutoring students for NIOS in 2019.

Soon the numbers ballooned to hundreds. Sarvath, who accompanies other tutors, mainly encourages students, who have dropped out of schools, to rejoin education by way of NIOS courses.

She said most of the students, who enroll with LPF, are those who either dropped out of school due to financial hardships or the death of the lone breadwinners in their families, forcing them to earn livelihoods etc.

Sarvath said that her students including working class young men and single mothers, who had achieved academic excellence.

She added that LPF also tried to get their graduates placements that included jobs such as reception desk work, call centre employee and the like. Her coaching classes even entice students from madrassas (Islamic theological schools) which abound in the area.

Several graduates (those with theological degree of ‘Maulvi’) from madrassas like Darul Uloom Sayeedia, Kulliyatul Banat, Darul Sadaf and Muslim orphanages too were enrolled and coached to clear the NIOS’ 10th and 12th grade exams.

Sarvath says, “Students who had dropped out, were able to clear the exams which enabled them to join courses like BCA, BBA and BSc Data Science. That is the reason we are celebrating this day today. It’s not just because students cleared 10th grade,” Sarvath said.

“Some of these students are Rida Fatima, who got into IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) Madras, Shabreen, who has a BA in Counseling Psychology from Government Arts College, and Zahid who went on to pursue BSc in Data Science. Khader Hassan did BBA (Bachelor of Business Administration),” she added.

said several of them attended the coaching classes even as they were engaged in earning their livelihood. She says, “She was proud of such students who were simultaneously their family’s breadwinners. They work in small grocery shops, pharmacies and the like. They give half their day to us. Having dropped out, wearing a uniform and a bag is something that makes them happy,” she said.

Businessman Naseer Humayun, who is one of the many people who lends monetary support to the Foundation, said that helping the underprivileged get an education was an excellent investment. Naseer was the chief guest during the programme.