At a time when the government has issued a circular calling upon educational institutions not to insist on fee from students, the Tamil department of S.T. Hindu College, Nagercoil, has set an example by crediting money to bank accounts of parents of 26 poor students.

“Instead of reaching out to unknown outsiders, we decided to help our students who have borne the brunt of the lockdown. We credited ₹3,000 each to the accounts of parents of 26 students of our department, because we know the difficulties faced by their families during the lockdown,” said T.V. Jagatheesan, head of the Tamil department.

He said that most students of Tamil departments, who studied in Tamil-medium government schools, came from poor families and poorer socio-economic backgrounds.

“It is not easy to judge the background of the students since we follow a uniform dress code in our college. So we left it to the students to identify those in need. There is a WhatsApp group in every class in our department and the students selected 26 deserving candidates from among them,” he said.

There are 15 teachers in the department and they immediately came forward to make contributions, and the money was credited to the accounts of the students’ parents.