In the last decade, the tribal welfare department has covered a lot of ground in its quest to impart quality education to a majority of tribal boys and girls in the State. Beginning with a mere 40 schools, the Tribal Welfare department now manages a staggering 260 educational institutions of various kinds spread across far-flung corners of the State.

The journey to this stage has been arduous. Given the unenviable task to polish and chisel tribal boys and girls to meritorious students and make them capable to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with those of the public school, the road ahead has not been rosy.

To enlighten the past, present and future of Gurukulam style of imparting education to tribal students and other activities taken up by the Tribal Welfare department, The Career Guide (TCG) met Joint Secretary (Gurukulam) Tribal Welfare Department E. Ravindra Babu. In an informal and free-wheeling chat with TCG, the Joint Secretary (JS) listed out the vision to take Gurukulam scheme to the next level.

Excerpts from an interview with Joint Secretary (Gurukulam) E. Ravindra Babu:

TCG: Tell us something about the vision, aims and objectives of Gurukulam style of education?

JS: According to the 2001 census, there are 35 tribal groups in the State with a total population of 50, 24, 104 and literacy rate among them as per that census is 37%. The sole aim of Gurukulam is to promote quality education among tribal population and improve the percentage of enrollment and prevent dropouts. To cater to the educational needs of poor tribal children and to monitor Tribal Welfare Residential Educational Institutions, a separate society Gurukulam was formed in 1999 by bi-furcating the Andhra Pradesh Residential Educational Institutions (APREI). Since then, there has been a rapid growth and from just 40 institutions we have grown to 129 institutions apart from mini Gurukulams (41) and special schools and colleges for girls, which are 102.

We felt that Gurukulam style, in which the teachers and students live on the same campus, is the only way to prevent tribal boys from dropping out. We also felt that round-the-clock availability of teachers would help students perform better in academics. 

TCG: What are the measures being taken to prepare tribal children to compete with children from public schools?

JS:  We are trying to give new impetus to improve the English speaking capabilities of tribal children. Given the Telugu medium background of most of the children, we can’t directly thrust English on them. However, we have made a very positive start in this direction. First, we are trying to enrich our school Principals and other staff members including teachers of Gurukulams in English by giving them training though experts in National Institute of Planning and Administration (NIPA), New Delhi and English and Foreign Language University (EFLU). Our Mathematics teachers are attending Navodaya Leadership training classes to improve their English communication and teaching skills. Apart from that, we have made it necessary for school and college faculty of Gurukulams to regularly visit Navodaya schools and learn their techniques.

In the long run, full-fledged CBSE syllabus would also be introduced in all the Gurukulams and for that we need trained staff. The staff of Gurukulams is being trained in CBSE method of teaching, evaluating the student’s project works and testing their non-scholastic skills. The CBSE has also introduced grading system and that’s why learning to test the non-scholastic skills of students is very important.

TCG: What are the steps being taken by Gurukulams to improve the soft skills of tribal students?

JS: Soft skills are entirely a new topic for Tribal Welfare Department and tribal students. But, in this age and times, freedom of expressing opinions confidently has become very important. We have introduced a seminar system among junior college students to boost their confidence levels.   

In a class, the students have been distributed into groups and every week three children would have to talk in front of the class on any of his or her chosen topic. Each student would be allowed to talk for 15 minutes and by the end of the term, all class students would have spoken out. This, we hope, would reduce stage fright, shyness and lack of confidence, which is very common among tribal children.  

We are also thinking seriously to hold workshops and seminars on soft skills in the near future. These interactive meets would feature top Human Resource personnel from the industry who can impart the required skills to the tribal children. Such measures are in the pipeline.  

TCG: Please tell us something about the project of introducing computer skill development courses in Gurukulams.

JS: We have introduced computer courses in 46 Gurukulam schools. Under the 1,000 computers program of the School Education department, each of these 46 schools has nearly 20 computers. Students in these Gurukulams are well-versed in MS office, DTP and browsing the internet. In fact, animation programmes created by Gurukulam school students were recently appreciated by former President of India Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam.

In the near future, we are going to introduce computers to other educational institutions and even residential junior colleges. For such big projects, funding is required and we are hoping that the State Government funds such projects. As far as knowledge in computers is concerned, our computer educated school children in these 46 schools are on par with other public school students.  

TCG: What about job opportunities?

JS: We have realised the fact that due to their financial weakness, the tribal children are always under pressure to take up work, either in their villages during holidays or immediately after completion of intermediate. This impedes their future education.

Keeping these things in mind, recently we introduced vocational courses to help students earn some money and possibly even finance their education further. Vocational courses for second year intermediate students like medical lab technology, accountancy and taxation and DTP have been introduced in some institutions.

The medical lab technology and multi-purpose health worker courses are tailor made for tribal girls. There are already instances where some girls have completed the course and been
absorbed in private hospitals in Hyderabad.

A majority of the tribal boys dream of making it to professional colleges. Because of the job assurance, most of the students aim to become teachers through DIET and they concentrate on that. Of the 6,000 admissions every year, nearly 600 tribal students take admission to professional colleges in the State.

TCG: How do you provide quality medical care to Gurukulam students?

JS: To provide immediate access to better medical care in corporate hospitals, the State Government has introduced Rajiv Giribala Raksha scheme. Since 2006, a health insurance cover has been taken from National Insurance Company only for the students of Tribal Welfare Educational institutions.   

TCG: What are the other salient features of Gurukulam scheme?

JS: Students are being exposed to concepts of computers, yoga, physical education, cultural activities like conducting seminars, club activities, project works, organising career guidance cells and also public awareness programmes like National Green Corp, AIDS awareness programme and consumer club activities.   

TCG: Tell us about the staff and Gurukulam teachers. What are the facilities being provided to Gurukulam students?

JS: Highly qualified teachers are working in Gurukulam institutions. There are nearly 1,696 teachers, including principals in the Tribal Welfare Department run residential schools. Government has issued orders regularising 403 contract teachers and efforts are on to recruit personnel to 147 teaching posts on regular basis and 153 posts on contract basis. Training programmes are being given to our faculty members through NIPA, EFLU and Dr. MCR HRD Institute.

Each student would get four pairs of uniform cloth, bedding material, text books and note books. Cosmetic and travel charges are also provided annually. Trunks, plates and glasses are also provided once in five years to students.

TCG: What are the challenges ahead?

JS: There are several challenges that lie ahead – infrastructure issue. Most of the schools and colleges need new buildings to house the students. Furniture like cots, tables, chairs etc is also needed in a big way at several Gurukulam-run educational institutions. Due to the financial downturn, funding to take up such developmental activities has either dried up or slowed down. But, there are proposals and a few are under active consideration of the State Government and hopefully things would start to roll out.  

Students in Gurukulams need more libraries, books, better toilets, laboratories, computer rooms and these infrastructure loopholes are being plugged at a regular basis. We are working overtime to solve these niggling infrastructure related issues.  

Apart from infrastructure, another major challenge ahead is to maintain quality of the education and inculcate a healthy competitive spirit among tribal children. To attract tribal girls to Tribal Welfare run educational institutions, we need attractive job-guarantee packages. If we successfully prove that they can get jobs after their intermediate and fund their own future studies, then enrolment of girls would increase automatically. Apart from that, we need to improve our standards by giving importance to English language. Presently, the faculty of Gurukulams is being trained and hopefully this training would reflect on the performance of tribal students in the future.

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