An existential crisis is looming over 1,100-odd Adi Dravidar Welfare Schools in the State as their strength is dwindling rapidly. This is despite the increase in the number of such schools and students getting free education along with notebooks, textbooks, uniform, and bicycles.
A senior teacher talks about how an Adi Dravidar Welfare School, about 15 km from Tiruchi, has shrunk in size. “Seven years ago, it had around 1,200 students. Today, there are only about 600 children in the school,” the teacher laments.
An official of the revenue department says that in Tiruchi district, there are at least a dozen schools, having just one student each.
Statewide trend
The trend of fewer and fewer students in the Adi Dravidar Welfare Schools is not just confined to one or two districts, but is more perceptible in the districts of Cuddalore, Vellore and Kancheepuram, all of which recorded a negative growth ranging from 34% to 24% in the last five years. In these three districts, the share of Scheduled Castes (SC)/Dalits in the overall population varies from 21% to 29%
Although the schools are called Adi Dravidar Welfare Schools being run by the Adi Dravidar and tribal welfare department, they are open to students from other communities too. Even though the downward trend is evident across the four categories of schools – primary, middle, high and higher secondary, the decline in the strength in primary and middle schools is far more steep than in respect of the other two.
The genesis of the schools can be traced to the initiatives taken by C. Iyodhee Thass Pandithar (1845-1914), a Dalit intellectual, who had pursued with the British government the matter of setting up schools meant for SC children at a time when the community had virtually little access to formal education, says P. Sivakami, who served as secretary of the department about 15 years ago. Over the years, the schools were established in areas with considerable presence of Dalits.
Reasons for the trend are not far to seek. There has been decline in students’ strength of government schools (meaning those coming under the control of school education department), says a senior official of the Adi-Dravidar and tribal welfare department
Intense competition from private schools is another factor. These schools are arranging transportation to pick up and drop students at their places of residence. Besides, once a student enters a private school, he or she is not allowed to go out during the working hours of the school whereas such a restriction is hardly enforced in Adi Dravdiar Welfare Schools, says the teacher. As parents of Dalit students in rural areas are invariably daily wage-earners, they feel the restriction provides “an atmosphere of safety and security” to their children.
M. Bharathan, State organiser of the Ambedkar Kalvi Centenary Movement, a body based in Tirunelveli working in the area of education for SC students, says: “the craze for English education” is strong among Dalit parents. This is driving them to get their children admitted to private schools. He points out that a Adi Dravidar Welfare School in Pathukani of Kanyakumari district has been able to have full strength because it has English sections.
While primary and middle schools can be brought under the school education department, there is a strong need for retaining High and Higher Secondary Schools under the control of Adi Dravidar and tribal welfare department in view of SC students finding it difficult to get admission to mathematics-physics-chemistry-biology or computer science group even in government schools, says Mr. Bharathan.
R. Christodas Gandhi, former civil servant, suggests that as is being done in Andhra Pradesh, a government-controlled foundation or trust be formed under which high and higher secondary schools can be brought for close monitoring of their performance. The suggestion assumes relevance as the Adi-Dravidar and tribal welfare department does not have an elaborate network of officers to observe the schools, unlike the school education department.
