Why a new education system is the need of the hour for the Cholanaikar community in Kerala

The KSSP report suggests the deployment of educated people from the community to teach their children till Class IV in order to counter the language divide for students from the community
Representative image | Pic: Wikimedia Commons
Representative image | Pic: Wikimedia Commons

The Kerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishad (KSSP) has released a comprehensive report to empower members of the Cholanaikar community in Mancheeri in Karulai panchayat. The report that was handed over to the members of Malappuram district panchayat stresses the introduction of a new education system to help uplift the community. KSSP members blamed the present education system which is not even enabling the members of the community to read and write Malayalam. 

"As many as 227 people from 76 Cholanaikar families are living in Mancheeri. Among them, 27 children are presently going to school. Even after the government provided education to the people in the community, most of them are not able to communicate their basic needs to people outside of their community. This is why the Parishad has recommended in the report to put them under a new education system," said Rajendran Kalarikkal, a member of the Parishad from Malappuram district. 

The KSSP report suggests the deployment of educated people from the community to teach their children till Class IV. "The plan is to impart education to the children belonging to the community at their colonies instead of sending them to schools. Providing education in their colonies is important because most of the students are not willing to go to schools and a large number of students are dropouts. Also, the education they get from schools is not helping them communicate with the outside world properly," Rajendran said. 

"In order to educate them till Class IV, the authorities should choose the educated people in the community under 25 years of age. The people under 25 years should also be trained to give education to the children," he added. According to linguistic experts, members of the Cholanaikar community speak a different language which is a mix of Tamil and Kannada. Another advantage of the proposed new education system is that there will not be a communication gap between teachers and students as both are from the same community and their language is common. 

"Teachers from the same community will be able to educate children better than teachers from other communities," the KSSP member said. The KSSP report says the Karulai panchayat can take initiatives to implement the suggestions in the report for the community with the financial help of the district panchayat and other bodies. The new education system for the community should also be approved by the State Education Department.

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