The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : School Education department may supervise Adi Dravidar Schools

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 03, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

School Education department may supervise Adi Dravidar Schools

R.K. Radhakrishnan

The aim is to improve the pass percentage and skill sets of students

CHENNAI: The State Government is considering a proposal to hand over the supervision of Adi Dravidar Schools to the School Education department to improve the pass percentage and the skill sets of students.

At present, the department caters to the academic part, such as syllabus and textbooks.

The pass percentage in Adi Dravidar schools has consistently been lower than that of almost all other categories of schools. For instance, in 2004, only 60.75 per cent of Adi Dravidar students cleared the Higher Secondary examinations, when the average pass percentage was 76.34. The next year, this dipped further to 60.55 per cent, when the average percentage went up to 76.83.

In 2006, the pass percentage of Adi Dravidar students declined steeply to 53.61 while the average pass rate was 74.51.

There are 1,053 Adi Dravidar welfare schools in the State, in which about 2.07 lakh students are studying. The department also runs 286 Tribal Residential Schools in which 36,563 students have enrolled. The Adi Dravidar Welfare department spends 77 per cent of its funds (Rs.492.09 crore) for schemes related to education.

Little value addition

Community leaders and politicians argue that a student gets little academic value addition in these institutions and are merely "pushed" from one class to another without having learnt much.

"I will go to the extent of saying that Adi Dravidar students pass their public examinations only because they are allowed to copy en masse," says writer and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi MLA D. Ravikumar.

Pointing to the pass percentage in Chidambaram Adi Dravida welfare school this year, he asks how the pass percentage suddenly dipped to less than 10 per cent when it had over 70 per cent pass last year. "The answer is simple. This year the invigilators were strict," he claims.

The other part of the problem, Adi Dravidar department officials say, is the lack of expertise of those supervising the schools. Now, special Tahsildars inspect the schools. For most of them, this is an additional work for which they are not specifically trained. The officials argue that if the School Education department's district-level education officers conduct the inspections, the quality of teaching and learning may improve.

When contacted, School Education Minister Thangam Thennarasu said his department would be willing to share its expertise if required. "We want to ensure that as many students as possible pass the Class 10 and Class 12 examinations, especially from the backward and scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. Our department is willing to help if we are entrusted with the responsibility."

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