Poor SSC results set alarm bells ringing in Kothagudem

​Kothagudem: Even as the State government is making tall claims about its various development schemes aimed at the welfare of tribals in rural Telangana, a reality check shows that things are not as encouraging as the authorities claim. 

Though the government has introduced several measures to improve the education of tribal children, all those schemes allegedly have failed to bring in desired results. The Tribal Welfare Department was in for a shock when Telangana Board of Secundary Education (TBSE) declared the SSC results this year as all schools under the Integrated Tribal Development Agency ( ITDA) secured ridiculously low results, despite the government initiating several programmes to provide quality education to the tribal students. 

Comparing to the last year results, this year, pass percentage of tribal students was visibly low, according to officials of the department. It may be noted that before the examinations were held, Tribal Welfare Commissioner Dr Christina Z Chongthu visited ITDA schools in Bharachalam and inspected their performances. 

However, during her inspection, she reportedly expressed her displeasrue over the qulaity of education in those schools. She was said to be angry with the English teacher in the Ashram School at Dummagudem. She asked some questions to the concerned English teacher, but he could not respond to her questions properly. The commissioner was reportedly upset over the way things were moving in the tribal schools. 

In Bhadrachalam Agency area, only 75.91 percentage of students passed the SSC examinations this year in ITDA Bhadrachalam. A total of 850 students failed in only one subject that is Mathematics. The results show the sorry state of affairs in the education system in tribal schools. It show how poor the teachers are in preparing the children for examinations in their schools. 

Upset by the results and poor standards of education in these schcools, the government seems to has woken up from slumber and are planning to implement a new system for the imporvement of education in tribal schools. 

After the poor results this time around, the Tribal Welfare Secretary and Commissioner are planning to implement the scheme Poonadhi (Foundation) in all primary and high schools. As part of the scheme, the department has started giving training classes to the teachers in all ITDA schools in Adilabad district. 

As part of the programme, which has begun on May 10, training classes will be conducted for teachers in Maths, English and other subjects. The government has already appointed 90 teachers in all ITDA schools in the State to provide quality training to the teachers of tribal schools. 

Separate study material has also been provided to the teachers during training programme. After the training, the teachers who attended the prgramme will train other teachers in their ITDA limits, according to official sourses. 

ITDA Deputy Director Ram Murthy said the programme would be implemented in all schools this year. He also said special classes would be arranged for the candidates who had failed in the tenth class examinations in concerned subjects to make them pass the supplementary examinations.