When the education authorities are struggling to find a solution to tackle the dropout of scheduled tribe students from schools, the Sulthan Bathery Municipality has come out with pragmatic solutions to address the issue.
Dropout of tribal children was a major issue in the district especially after the spread of COVID-19, says P.A. Abdul Nazar, implementing officer of the project.
The civic body launched a pilot project titled Dropout-free Municipality last year to address the issue, Mr. Nazar said.
As many as 8,320 students, including 2,180 ST category students, are studying in 11 government and aided schools within the municipal limits.
The pilot project was launched in Chenad, Odappallam and Kuppadi government high schools. It was a huge success and all the tribal children who had appeared for the SSLC examination in these schools qualified for higher education, he said.
The success prompted the authorities to expand the project to all schools under the civic body and it earmarked ₹10 lakh from the tribal special fund for the project. The authorities also convened special Oorukkootams in all tribal hamlets to sensitize parents and motivation classes were organised for children prior to the project, he added.
As many as 14 trained tribal promoters were appointed under the project to bring children to schools from remote areas. Special Parent and Teachers Associations have been constituted in all schools and it would be convened regularly to discuss children’s progress. As tribal children are very fond of sports and arts, sports kits and musical instruments are also provided to all schools to promote their talents.
