She left school in LKG. At 22, Bushra is studying for Class 10

For 22-year-old Bushra, going back to school is not about returning to something she once had.

It is about finally getting a chance at something she barely had time to know.

A native of Kottakkal in Malappuram district, Bushra left formal education in LKG, when the hardships faced by her family made continuing school impossible. But the classroom never quite left her imagination.

Years later, she found her way back.

Today, Bushra is the youngest equivalency learner enrolled with the Literacy Mission in Malappuram district and is preparing for the Class 10 equivalency examination at Kottappadi Government Boys Higher Secondary School.

The journey to this classroom has come in stages.

In 2018, she cleared the Class 4 equivalency examination with good marks. She went on to complete the Class 7 equivalency course and has now moved to Class 10.

For Bushra, each examination has meant more than another certificate.

“It is a chance to reclaim something that circumstances had taken away from me as a child—the opportunity to learn,” she said.

She is the only daughter of the late A Shihabuddeen and Sulaikha of Thokkampara Brothers Quarters in Kottakkal.

After her father's death, her mother took up a job at a supermarket and continued to support her daughter's desire to study. That support has remained central to Bushra's return to education.

Her determination recently earned recognition from the district Literacy Mission. At a function held at the equivalency study centre, Literacy Mission District Coordinator P V Sastha Prasad honoured her by draping a shawl around her. Hindi language teacher P Devi, Centre Coordinator V Hemalatha and class leaders C T Shebeerali and P Thasmiya also spoke at the function.

Bushra's journey sits within a larger story about education in Kerala — one that is often hidden by the state's reputation for near-universal literacy.

Kerala's female literacy rate stood at 92.07 per cent in the 2011 Census, compared with 96.11 per cent for men. In Malappuram, the female literacy rate was 91.62 per cent.

Yet the need for second chances has not disappeared. The Kerala State Literacy Mission Authority, established in 1998 after the state achieved total literacy, continues to run equivalency and lifelong-learning programmes for school dropouts, neo-literates and others who want to resume their education.

Its 2025 data shows just how much demand remains: Malappuram had 2,088 learners in the Class 10 equivalency programme and 3,024 at the Class 12 level, among the highest numbers in the state.

The importance of that second chance becomes even clearer when education is viewed alongside women's economic participation. In 2023-24, Kerala's female worker population ratio was 31.8 per cent in rural areas and 27 per cent in urban areas, according to the state's Economic Review. Nationally, the female labour force participation rate for those aged 15 and above was 41.7 per cent.

Education alone does not guarantee a place in the workforce. But for women whose schooling was interrupted before it had properly begun, returning to a classroom can be the first step towards having choices that were once unavailable.

For Bushra, the next milestone is Class 10.

After that, there may be another classroom, another examination and another door waiting to open.

Because sometimes, education is not a road travelled in one straight line.

Sometimes, it is a road one finds the courage to return to.