Of the multiple announcements that Tamil Nadu’s budget for 2023-24 made, one polarised civil society. It pertained to schools functioning under different government departments, such as the Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare (ADTW), Backward Classes, Most Backward Classes and Denotified Communities Welfare (BCW), Forests, and Hindu Religious And Charitable Endowments (HR&CE), being brought brought under the School Education (SE) Department.
Such departments together account for 1,834 schools in Tamil Nadu, at which roughly 1.6 lakh students study. Of these, around 80% of schools (1,466) and 80% of students (1.26 lakh) are under the ADTW Department. Within ADTW, 1,138 are AD Welfare schools while the remaining 328 are tribal welfare schools.
Kallar Reclamation schools, run by the BCW Department in Madurai, Theni and Dindigul districts for children from the denotified communities, which earlier faced marginalisation under the Criminal Tribes Act, have the third-highest number of schools at 295. Around 27,000 students study in them. The HR&CE Department runs 32 schools, the Welfare of Differently-Abled Persons Department, 22 and the Forest Department, 19 schools.
Acceptance and apprehensions
S.C. Nataraj, director of the Sathyamangalam-based non-governmental organisation SUDAR, which works with tribal communities, said that the merger has been sough after, for a long time now. Long-pending grievances of students, especially from the Government Tribal Residential Schools, could be addressed through the administrative expertise in the SE Department, involving Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) Coordinators, Block Resource Teachers, Block Education Officers, and District Education Officers, he said.
Students interact with a tutor online at the Government Tribal Residential Middle School at Kathirimalai in Erode district in Tamil Nadu | Photo Credit: GOVARTHAN M
S. Namburajan, working president, National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled, said that special schools have for long been left out of the general discourse surrounding school education: this could be addressed by this merger. T.M.N. Deepak of the December 3 movement, a disability rights organisation, also said that integration at some level with the SE department could help the special schools get the attention they need.
The move to merge AD Welfare schools, Kallar Reclamation schools and HR&CE schools, on the other hand has attracted apprehensions. T.R. Ramesh of the Temple Worshippers Society, who has filed litigations related to the opening of colleges by the HR&CE Department, said that the schools were started by the respective temples in their properties. The HR&CE department did not own them. As the schools have a religious character and impart courses on Hinduism, they cannot be run by the School Education department, which is secular in nature.
A question of history
A Selvapreetha of the Tamil Nadu Denotified Tribes Social Justice Movement., a former student of the Kallar Reclamation School in Perumkamanallur, said she felt changing her school’s name would amount to erasing her community’s struggle against the Criminal Tribal Act, and the formation of these schools.
A view of a Government Kallar Reclamation Higher Secondary School in Dindigul district. File
The transfer of AD Welfare schools has understandably triggered widespread discussions, due to their large numbers, higher budget, the historical context in which they were formed and concerns over what the announcement would mean for the welfare of the Scheduled Communities.
While the demand for mainstreaming the AD welfare schools had come up occasionally in the past, the recent push came from the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), which demanded that the caste-based identification in the names of these schools be dropped and they be brought under the “supervision” of the SE department.
The reason for the demand broadly fell into two categories: firstly, the concern that the identification of schools on the basis of caste was leading to ghettoisation; secondly, the worrying quality of the schools.
The difference of opinion stemmed in how to address this problem and whether the schools were indeed leading to stigma.
A teacher seen with his students at an Adi Dravidar Primary School in Tirupattur. File
Poet Sukirtharani, who is a teacher at a government school, asked how caste identifier in the school name alone could be a problem, when caste discrimination was a reality in every sphere, including in the segregation of oor and cheri and the separate crematoriums for the Dalits. Pointing to the recent incident of the mixing of human faeces in an overhead water tank used by the Dalits in Vengaivayal in Pudukkottai district, she said nothing significant has been done socially, politically, and economically to address such deep-rooted casteism in the State.
Moreover, when the present government called its style of governance the ‘Dravidian model’, why should the word ‘Adi Dravidar’ be seen as stigmatising, she asked.
She said changing the name may not encourage students from other communities to enrol in AD Welfare schools as caste Hindus would not want to send their children to these schools, predominantly located in areas where SC communities live.
Inadequate consultations
Writer Azhagiya Periyavan, also a teacher at a government school, said he welcomed the decision, he wondered whether it was announced in a hurry, without adequate consultations with stakeholders.
He said the AD Welfare schools were started because Dalit students were not allowed to study in other schools. Today, if these schools had become the reason for identification and isolation of students based on their caste, then that needed to be changed.
Arguing that the human faeces would not have been mixed in the tank in Vengaivayal if it had been used by all communities, he said positive discrimination should be retained only wherever necessary and be removed from other places. He said he believed that the quality of schools could improve if they were brought under the SE department, which was better equipped to handle education.
Stigma and ghettoisation
Villupuram MP D. Ravikumar, whose list of demands for the welfare of SCs, submitted earlier to the State government included the renaming of AD Welfare schools, said the stigma experienced by those studying in AD Welfare schools is real. “It has turned into ghettoisation,” he said, adding that if the schools were exclusively created for the community, they should be better than other government schools and not worse.
The Government Adi Dravidar Welfare School at St. Thomas Mount. File | Photo Credit: VEDHAN M
He said that the National Achievement Surveys have shown that students from AD Welfare schools were performing poorer than those in other government schools. “The State government has 7.5 % reservation for government school students [in admissions to medical and engineering courses], which is applicable to AD welfare schools as well. However, not a single student from these schools is able to secure admission,” he alleged.
He said it was not ideal to demand that everything should be separate for SCs. “Wherever integration is possible, we need to think of that,” he said. He said the AD Welfare department, which is largely run by officials from revenue backgrounds, did not have the expertise in overseeing and improving the functioning of schools.
Prolonged indifference
G. Vivek from the Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare Department Teachers - Warden Federation, however, strongly criticised the move. He said that the decision reflected insufficient understanding of the issues facing the department and the inability to fix it.
A view of the Government Tribal Residential School at Kathiripatti in Erode district | Photo Credit: GOVARTHAN M
Acknowledging that corruption and other irregularities were widely prevalent, he said this was due to prolonged indifference by the government in filling vacancies, implementing an effective monitoring mechanism and ensuring transparent procedures for promotions and transfers.
A significant number of schools were functioning as single-teacher schools due to vacancies. Posts like Deputy Director (Education), Assistant Director (Education) Assistant Education Officer (Schools) and Deputy Inspector of Schools in the department, of officials who were to monitor the effective functioning of schools, have either been left vacant or arbitrarily delegated to unqualified persons, he added.
Pointing out that benefits like free textbooks and uniforms were already being routed via the SE department, he said that AD Welfare schools faced “step-motherly” treatment in the allocation of these benefits. “We would be the last ones to receive them,” he said, adding that merging AD Welfare schools in the “ocean” of SE would only worsen the situation.
Shrinking strength
However, a section of staff in the AD Welfare Department were receptive to the idea of merger. A teacher from an AD Welfare school in Tiruchi said that the enrolment in the school has shrunk from 1,200 before COVID-19 to only 500 now. A teacher from another school in Lalgudi taluk said the school was finding it difficult to function with a shortage of teachers.
S. Saravanakumar, District Adi Dravidar Welfare Officer, said that the expectation is that the schools will be upgraded in terms of infrastructure, technology and other needs. “However, we will know the status only after the plan is implemented,” he said.
Mr. Vivek said that a key concern is the total lack of communication on how the services of the staff will be managed, if the merger happened. “We hear that the hostels will remain with the AD Welfare Department. Teachers get posted as wardens in rotation. How will that work?” he asked. Stating that even VCK’s demand was mainly to rename the schools, he said the government should have just done that.
The Government Adi Dravidar Girls Hostel in Chokkikulam in Madurai. File
Though the main demand was to rename, Mr. Ravikumar said he was happy with the policy decision to take control of all schools, especially considering the fact this government is focusing its attentions on school education. He, however, appealed to the government to issue an order to remove caste names in all private schools as well.
A. Kathir, executive director of the non-governmental organisation Evidence, said that he viewed it as a retrograde move to take away the independent identity of these schools. He said it would be problematic to bring the schools under one umbrella, especially in the Southern districts where the discrimination towards SCs is high. If corruption and irregularities were a serious problem, the government should deal with the staff concerned with an “iron hand”.
A senior official in a Southern district in the SE department asked if administrative efficiency and expertise were the reason for the mergers, why had the government not spelt out its views on schools run by Municipal Corporations. He said while the objective may be to bring unity among students, this may be difficult to manage, since wristbands and other caste-identifying markers were prevalent in Southern districts.
Mr. Periyavan said that such fears of discrimination within students, or by teachers or the possibility of SC students finding it difficult to get required groups in Class XI post the proposed merger, were largely unnecessary as such things could happen even in the present set up. Moreover, it was possible to put in adequate safeguards and be vigilant to avoid such issues.
The funding question
With schools being a major part of the ADTW department, Ms. Sukirtharani expressed concern that the transfer of control of schools may lead to reduced relevance for the department itself. She pointed to the reduction of around ₹700 crore in the budget estimate for the department for 2023-24, compared to the previous year.
However, Mr. Ravikumar said that the separate legislation announced by the Tamil Nadu government to ensure proper spending of funds earmarked under the SC Sub Plan and Tribal Sub Plan can be an effective safeguard against such concerns.
An official from the ADTW department said that the reduction in the budget in 2023-24 is not to divert funds or reduce expenditure. It is due to the Union government’s plan to directly credit its share of the post-matric scholarship amount to students, instead of routing it through the ADTW department.
Class 10 students writing their exams at the Government Adi Dravidar Higher Secondary School, Alamelumangapuram in Vellore. File
While clear plans regarding the merger will be evolved in the coming weeks, the official said that hostel wardens are likely to be sent back to schools wherever possible. Pointing out that the primary schools in the AD Welfare department have only teachers from the SC community, he said the same arrangement will be retained. Recalling the government’s assurance that jobs will be protected, the official added that efforts will be made to maintain separate seniority for the staff within the SE department.
To address the apprehensions raised by various sections, Mr. Periyavan suggested that the merger could be initiated on a pilot basis first, with 50 or 100 schools.
Merger of schools
The table shows the number of schools under various departments that are likely to be merged with the School Education department.
If merged, these schools will account for less than five per cent of the total schools under the mammoth School Education department, which has the largest budgetary allocation in Tamil Nadu government. The total number of govt-run schools is taken from Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) for the year 2021-22
The total number of students in these schools will account for roughly three per cent of the total number of students studying in schools run by the School Education department.
According to UDISE+ data for the year 2021-22, 31.1 lakh SC and ST students are in schools (all types, including in private) in Tamil Nadu. In comparison, 1.26 lakh students are there in schools run by Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare department (ADTW). This is four per cent of the total number of SC / ST students in school. Since, all the students in ADTW-run need not be from SC / ST communities, the actual percentage of SC / ST students studying in these schools could be lesser.
Source: Policy notes of respective departments, UDISE+, *Information provided by the Forest department
(With inputs from L. Srikrishna in Madurai , R. Krishnamoorthy in Coimbatore, Ancy Donal Madonna in Tiruchi, and Deepa H. Ramakrishnan, Poorvaja Sundar, Geetha Srimathi in Chennai)
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