A multi-pronged approach, not just to motivate teachers and students but parents as well, along with the strength that comes with the spirited alumni, has been the reason for students from the Telangana Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society (TSWREIS) doing well and it has been having a domino effect, said its Secretary R.S. Praveen Kumar here on Friday.
“Our students’ performance is even changing the ecosystem among government schools in the vicinity with they too emulating our practices and activities. Here, it’s not just the emphasis on education alone,” he explained, at a meeting organised by Manthan at Vidyaranya School.
Students hailing from underprivileged and discriminated backgrounds, specifically girls, have been doing spectacularly well in not only sports, adventure sports and other areas, but also in academics.
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“Fifty two students have taken admission into medicine with 12 in open category, 48 have joined IITs, 132 have joined NITs, 12 are studying at Delhi University...,” he reeled out the numbers with pride, while pointing out that most girls, if they had stopped education after class 10 or Intermediate, would have been married or doing some menial jobs now.
Dr. Kumar, also an IPS officer, shared the examples of some bright girls hailing from poor families, who did not return after summer vacation and on enquiry, it was learnt that they were married off at a prepubescent age.
This led to the ushering in of concepts like ‘Summer Samurai’ where children were given opportunity to participate in summer camps and ‘Quest’ where teachers reach out to parents during holidays. Starting 52 exclusive degree colleges for girls too has taken 10,000 students off the ‘marriage’ rigmarole.
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Dr. Kumar’s mother prodded him to work for the underprivileged which made him choose the “less glamorous” department and Chief Ministers like Kiran Kumar Reddy and K. Chandrasekhar Rao gave him complete freedom to bring about the transformation with generous funding.
A product of the welfare hostel himself, Dr. Kumar wants the power of opportunity that he got to be given to lakhs of poor children. Hailing the TS government for having 842 welfare hostels, with no precedent anywhere in the country, and its assurance to spending thousands of crores in the next few years, he foresees many more bright stars emerging as icons in varied fields.