After completing Class IV at a Tamil-medium lower primary school run by the Kerala government at Kathalakandy, 10-year-old P. Nitheesh of the Vellakkulam tribal hamlet has decided to continue his education at Government Higher Secondary School, Sholayur, where the medium of instruction will be Malayalam.
As schools across the State are reopening on Thursday after the summer vacation, Nitheesh looks a little worried.
“Tamil-medium education is available only up to Class IV in the tribal belts of Sholayur. My parents know Tamil and they helped me learn the lessons so far. As they have no mastery over Malayalam, they will be unable to help me with the new school,” said Nitheesh, a participant of a summer camp for tribal children organised by Kerala Mahila Samakhya Society (KMSS), in association with the SC/ST Department, at the Kathalakandy school.
‘Closer to Tamil’
“Learning Malayalam involves a little difficulty as our tribal language is closer to Tamil. Moreover, we are all big fans of Tamil films and songs. English, Malayalam, and Hindi often frighten us but Maths looks easier,” said N. Sarojini, a class VIII student from the Bhoothivazhi hamlet. The students who attended the week-long camp said their families were sending them to school braving many obstacles.
“Many children who studied in Tamil-medium schools find Malayalam a tough nut to crack at the upper primary level. Some are dropping out of the school system because of their fear for Malayalam while others are joining Malayalam-medium schools at Class I as they realise that four years of Tamil-medium education would be a sheer wastage of time and resources,” said Pushpa, mother of two school-going children of the Vechapathi tribal settlement.
Educational survey
“As part of the summer camp, we have organised an educational survey at Vellakkulam and Vechapathi. Dropout rates of schoolchildren are very high in this region and the main reasons cited are lack of sufficient drinking water and destruction of livelihood. Among the 252 children in these two colonies, only 148 are pursuing education,” said P.E. Usha, State project director of KMSS.
According to Unninarayanan of the Naykkanpadi colony, who is pursuing electronics and communication engineering at Government Engineering College, Kozhikode, said most tribal hamlets in Attappady lacked libraries and resource centres. “Children have no facility for extra reading. Newspapers are not available in any of the hamlets. In Vellakkulam, only 13 children are reading newspapers at least in their schools,” he said.
Teachers’ attitude
As far as arts and sports competitions are concerned, children cite the lack of trainers as reason for not participating. While 36 students at the camp said they were getting the love and care of teachers, 48 others said they were often subjected to humiliation and scolding by teachers. Most children reach the school after fetching drinking water for the family by trekking several kilometers and accompanying their parents to forests to collect minor forest produces.
