Next chapter for tribal students: 300 schools to join special project in Kerala

In a significant move to foster education among tribal communities, the general education department is scaling up its Special Enrichment Programme for Comprehensive Quality Education.

Set to extend its wingspan to provide additional financial support to 300 schools — up from the current 40 — with higher numbers of scheduled tribe students from the next academic year, the programme will also consider additional schools from the plantation and coastal areas, officials confirmed. The allotted funds will be used for parent awareness sessions, expert sessions, field excursions, and other related activities. Initial steps like teachers’ training, which do not have much financial requirement, have already begun in many schools.

“Contribution towards tribal education is one of the key advancements we are making this year,” C A Santhosh, education department additional director, said.

Another senior official, who previously worked with the programme, commented that absenteeism is a concern among tribal students. Hence, activities invoking academic interest among students should be incorporated, she said.

“As planned, parent awareness sessions will be beneficial in this context so that we can make them understand the significance of education,” she said.

Officials have also mentioned that coordinated efforts will be made to prevent overlap, if required. Efforts will be made to increase the participation of these students in national scholarship exams too.

Allocation for the scale-up will be made from the plan fund, which will be used for expert classes, field excursions, skill development programmes, etc, another higher officer said.

The fund, which will be distributed through the deputy directors concerned, will be monitored thoroughly for their expenditure under each head, officials remarked.

“An important concern we noted is that, though many scheduled tribe students pass the exams, some of their scores are not substantially improving. That may need interventions,” another official said.

Towards that end, the department is planning to conduct additional expert classes for academic support, she added. An application to maintain and monitor the digital attendance of students in these schools is also under active consideration. The plan is to inform the parents and panchayat officials.

However, higher officials working with school education itself have their reservations.

“Even if we allocate additional funds and monitor how it is being spent, the key focus should be on how impactful it will be for the children, which is unfortunately absent in our system,” said an official who did not want to be named.