The Gujarat Government has given special attention to primary schooling needs of thousands of students from the tribal community. It, as well as the NGOs, manage quality schools for the youngsters, writes Nilesh Shukla
Swami Vivekananda’s famous dream on education: “We want that education by which character is formed, strength of mind is increased, the intellect is expanded and by which one can stand on one’s own feet”, will be fulfilled when boys and girls of remote areas in the country can get quality education. The promotion of quality education is indeed necessary in small towns and remote villages. Gujarat is known as a progressive and highly industrialised State. But very few people know that the State has a 15 per cent tribal population. A decade ago, the State’s leadership took account of this and decided to aggressively spread mass awareness, not just for enrolment but for providing quality education in remote tribal areas.
With the objective to provide quality education to meritorious students coming from over 15 lakh tribal families of the State, the Gujarat Government has established 80 world-class educational institutions for meritorious tribal students throughout the tribal areas of the State.
These special schools are residential in nature. They are run by the State Government as also on the public-private partnership model, for children between classes six and 12. This model of providing high-quality modern education lays strong emphasis on extra-curricular activities and nurturing of inherent talent for a holistic personality development of the tribal student.
Considerable investment is made on educational facilities, teachers, students’ nutritional needs, teaching aids, and co-curricular activities. The students are provided education in the English medium in many of these schools in order to enable them to compete with the non-tribal population, a senior officer from Gujarat State Government said.
Giving an example of Vejalpur village of Panchmahal district, he apprised that an English medium school was established in the village in 2007-2008, which now imparts high standard education. The school is from class six to 12. The school places a great deal of emphasis on pedagogy and the teachers meet fortnightly to prepare their teaching plans. In addition to classroom teaching, the teachers spend extra time on students to enhance the latter’s knowledge repository. The teachers at Vejalpur continue to work out strategies so that children take off on a learning adventure every day.
Sports are accorded importance too, and for many Scheduled Tribes students, it is the first time that they are introduced to structured sports such as football, volleyball etc. The students of Vejalpur have participated in sports tournaments at national and international level. At the international level, 16 students participated in a taekwondo tournament in Sri lanka in 2011-2012 and won 13 gold and three silver medals. At the national level, 33 students participated in an open tournament in 2012-2013 in Mumbai and won 15 gold, 11 silver and seven bronze medals. The students also participated in the Khel Mahakumbh of the Government of Gujarat, winning Rs3.5 lakh in various sports such as kabaddi, volleyball, hockey, football, table tennis, taekwondo and athletics. The school also features a green-house and a two-court badminton hall.
Very recently, the students met former President APJ Abdul Kalam and presented to him paintings, including a portrait of his.
In 2012-2013, the 10th Board result of the school had a 100 per cent success rate. Equal emphasis is given on male and female education.
Surya Eklavya Sainik School, in Kherencha village, of Sabarkantha began operations in 2007-2008. It is run and maintained by Surya Foundation. The vision of Surya Eklavya Sainik School is to prepare students for the country’s defence forces. Students passing out from the school are also equipped to compete in exams for the administrative services, medical and engineering courses etc. Being a Sainik School, special focus is on physical activities like the Army drill, track and field events, yogasan, karate etc; games like volleyball, football, kho-kho and kabaddi are popular. The school has registered with the National Cadet Corps and every year 50 students take part in the training of the Junior Battalion.
In 2011-2012, the school hosted a Science Fair in which schools from across the State had participated. last year, 50 students participated in district level parade in the NCC. At the national level, a cadet participated at National Rifle Shooting Competition, NCC, Delhi, representing Gujarat State. Seventeen students participated in athletics, archery, kabaddi and kho-kho at national level. In December 2011, students participated in the National Science Congress at Jaipur.
Through rigorous academic programmes, athletics, cultural activities and community services, ST students studying in the special education initiative of the Tribal Development Department are being prepared for meaningful and efficient participation in the mainstream for economic prosperity and to be a part of national pride.