Monika Mukesh has little recollection of Bhind, a district in Madhya Pradesh where she was born, apart from postcard memories from her visits during vacations.

After her parents migrated a decade ago, Monika has known Kochi as home and did her schooling here. She speaks Malayalam as fluently as if it is her mother tongue, and also reads and write it with ease. Among the 90 migrant students from 14 schools in Ernakulam district enrolled under Roshni — a project for the educational uplift of migrant children — to clear the SSLC exam, she was one of three to secure A+ grade in all subjects.

She never learnt by rote. A student of VHSS Irumpanam, she did not bother with daily revision either. “I used to grasp the basic concepts of my lessons. I was attentive in class, which was my way of learning rather than revisiting everything at home,” she said. Her father sells pav bhaji, while her mother is a homemaker. Monika hopes to pursue science but remains undecided about the stream.

B.S. Harishka, another full A+ achiever from GHSS Muppathadam, was born in Kochi to Tamil parents. A Malayali for all practical purposes, she has no idea which part of Tamil Nadu her parents hail from. For her, Social Sciences was the toughest subject, which she studied daily. “Physics and Chemistry were revised twice a week, languages were learned mostly in class, and Maths was revised just a month before the exam,” said Harishka, who was raised by her accountant mother as a single parent.

In the run-up to the exam, K. Hariprasad, born to parents from Sivakasi in Tamil Nadu, battled mobile phone addiction as screen time competed with his lessons. Realising that he was in trouble, he gave up his phone, a decision that paid off when he secured A+ grades in all subjects at GHSS Cheranalloor. Mathematics was his toughest challenge, so he devoted extra attention to it. Working part-time at a supermarket in Perumbavoor during the vacation, he is clear that his future lies in computer science.

Roshni, run with the support of ₹1 crore in annual corporate social responsibility funding from Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, suffered setbacks during the last academic year as the district administration was preoccupied with two successive elections. However, District Collector G. Priyanka convened a meeting on Friday (May 15, 2026) to restore focus to the project. “Instructions have been given to the Education department and the IT Mission to identify migrant students and help with Aadhaar enrolment within the next fortnight. A review meeting will be held in another month and a half,” said Jayasree Kulakkunnath, academic coordinator of Roshni.

The project is being implemented in 40 schools in Ernakulam supported by a multi-lingual volunteer each. Impressed by its effectiveness, the government expanded it last year with Plan funds to 20 more schools in Ernakulam and two each in the other 13 districts.