The Kerala state government has envisioned a community development program to be implemented in schools located in tribal areas of the state with the objective of reducing dropouts. K Radhakrishnan, the Minister for Welfare of Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) of Kerala, informed the state assembly about this initiative on Sunday. He stated that in the successful fulfillment of this goal, the government will require the co-operation and help of elected representative, local bodies, and ST/SC leaders to help bring back the school dropouts.
He also informed the press that a remedial course was being conducted for students of the SC category who couldn’t pass engineering. “But the figures indicate that it is not effective. It has been noticed that students skip regular classes because of the understanding that if they are not successful, they can get a degree in the future through such a scheme. Therefore, the importance is now given to make students successful by giving them proper training during their studies,” concluded the minister. “In 2020-21, 18,000 SC students dropped out. Of this, 85 per cent of the children were brought back to schools,” he declared.
He also said that the state government didn’t have any say on the reservation of SC/ST in the private sector, and hence urged the central government to come up with laws that make sure, children from tribal states get adequate attention. He also informed that media that the states SC development department was providing adequate opportunities to 175 SC and ST students of Kerala to seek foreign education.
