In middle of a hectic election season, a record number of students — about 1,35,500 — appeared for the entrance exam for admissions to various residential welfare educational institutions run by the TS government, across 443 centres in the State on Sunday.
What is unusual is that the number of seats are just 49,300 for entry level fifth class into these institutions when an unprecedented 1.46 lakh applications were received. It is but a reflection of the popularity of the institutions with the parents, mostly from the socially and economically impoverished communities, who would want their wards to get quality education and for personality development.
These institutions take care of uniforms, provide nutritious food and good accommodation apart from English medium based modern teaching methods. Students also get exposure to competitive examinations for pursuing varied higher education courses, sports and extra-curricular activities including mountaineering.
“While we would definitely need more infrastructure support to increase our strength, we would like to consolidate what we have. But, given the resources, we are well placed and grateful for the government for facilities created,” said R.S. Praveen Kumar, secretary, Telangana Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society, also in charge of the Tribal Welfare Schools and coordinating the entrance examinations.
Though there is demand for seeking admission in other classes, he is reluctant to open them up. “We will take in students into other classes only when there are vacancies as we wish to catch them young. It may also be difficult for them to adjust to our curriculum if they join in between,” he said. About 25% of seats are open to students from general category in these institutions.
Such has been the confidence these schools instilled in the government that it has not only cleared several teachers posts but has also entrusted the responsibility of choosing their own staff. “We have advertised for 3,679 posts and our recruitment board works on ad hoc basis with six retired people taking it as an additional responsibility. We come together before a test, prepare the application and conduct examination before dispersing,” he explained.
About 1,346 teachers have already been chosen in the past eight months and recruitment of the rest is to be completed by this summer so as to maintain a ratio of 1:29 teacher-student ratio. “We cannot dilute the quality of teaching as our intention is to prepare leaders from the poorest of the poor so that they can get back to the community to provide leadership,” added Dr. Kumar.