In a first, the State Tribal Welfare Department of Tamil Nadu has asked headmasters/headmistresses (HMs) of their residential higher secondary schools to keep track of students, especially girls, who passed out this academic year and ensure they take admission to a college of their choice. The HMs should report the admission statuses of the students at a review meeting scheduled for August 12.
"Once the headmasters report the admission status, we are planning to form a team that will reach out to the families of the girl students who have not enrolled for undergraduate courses and give them necessary guidance," a senior official of the tribal welfare department said.
This year, 1,618 students appeared for Class XII Board exams from 320 schools run by the department. Of these, 1,450 students passed. After the exams ended, the HMs were told to record the phone numbers of their parents, their addresses, and what courses the students were interested in.
The HMs also had a preliminary discussion with parents on the courses available. "In many cases, the main reasons for lack of enrollment in undergraduate courses seem to be marriages and a lack of awareness about opportunities," the official added.
The tribal welfare department ran only two college hostels (one in the Nilgiris and the other at Chromepet in Chennai) with a capacity to accommodate 50 students each, but it coordinated with the Adi Dravidar welfare department to accommodate their students in the latter's hostels, the official said. The Adi Dravidar welfare department run 145 hostels for college students across TN, of which 67 are for boys and 78 for girls.
According to sources, the tribal welfare department has taken steps to increase its accommodation facilities for college students by building four more hostels — one each in Tiruchy, Namakkal, Dharmapuri, and Tirupattur — to be able to accommodate 400 more students.
