In order to aid its students in reaching their full potential, Tamil Nadu's Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare Department is set to implement two major initiatives, Social Labs and Learn-a-Lot, aimed at the over 60,000 students residing in school and college hostels run by it across Tamil Nadu.
While Social Labs is aimed at students in college hostels, focusing on bridging academic, professional and interpersonal skill gaps, Learn-a-Lot has been designed for students in school hostels, to enhance academic performance along with extracurricular, co-scholastic and life skills.
According to officials, most of the students in the Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare schools and hostels are from economically backward families earning less than Rs 2.5 lakh per annum and are first-generation learners.
Even though the schools and hostels address their academic needs, there is a gap in providing them with the necessary guidance required for them to develop additional skills to unlock their full potential.
According to the Heckman Curve, the highest rate of economic returns comes from the earliest investments in children, officials said. We are intending to leverage this by introducing structured interventions through the Learn-a-Lot and Social Labs programmes that equip students with life skills, professional competencies and mentorship, they added.
The Social Labs programme will be implemented in 174 college hostels, hosting approximately 12,910 students across the state. Its core focus is to foster employability, build self-esteem and create a mentorship ecosystem. Training modules will include functional English, personality development, professional skills (such as MS Office and Tally), arts and sports.
The goal is to make students not just college-ready, but job-ready, officials said, according to a report by The New Indian Express.
The Learn-a-Lot programme, to be implemented in 997 school hostels, covering around 44,500 students, will take a broader approach by combining academics with co-scholastic and life skill components. It will ensure students get curriculum-based academic support to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education, digital literacy, fine arts, sports, value education and career guidance.
"The difference in both initiatives is due to the different stages of life that the students are in. We have designed the programmes to suit their specific needs. Both will follow a zone-wise implementation strategy with support provided online, in-person or in blended formats, depending on the location and infrastructure available," said an official, as per the report by The New Indian Express.
