Decade-old seat shortage forces Wayanad Tribal students to drop education

The post-pandemic system-collapse of education in Kerala hit Scheduled Tribe (ST) students from Wayanad- who were already struggling to find footing in higher education- the most, after the state faces a shortage of seats for class 11, The News Minute (TNM) reports.

The seat shortage caught largely in headlines as it affected general category students too, but the ST community has been facing the same for nearly a decade, and the issue was scarcely addressed, TNM says. 4,500 plus tribal students were denied seats to class 11 in Wayanad over the eight years, TNM reports.

Eight per cent of secondary and higher secondary government institute seats in Kerala are reserved for ST, which amounts to around 2000 seats a year. But the number of SSLC passers every year counts to 6,000-7,000, and a third of them resides in Wayanad. 2000 ST students were estimated to be cleared SSLC last year in the district, but government allocation for them to class eleven is only 529 seats. This means the lion's share has to drop out of school.

Also, after the main allotment, a large number of seats were diverted to the general category, TNM says.

One of the students, Divyamani, who cleared 10 in 2020, applied for class 11 that year but didn't get it. She had applied for the same this year too but has not allotted so far. Divyamani and 20 others in the villages of Palakolli and Marakavu didn't get placed in class 11 in the last two years; a teacher told TNM.

The disparity faced by the students and parents here led them to 28 days protest at Sultan Bathery last year, under the aegis of Adi Shakti Summer School. They demanded an increase in seats, stoppage to discrimination on STs in schools etc.

Also, they sought government intervention for tribal students to have due representation in the educational system. After the open protest stopped, it continued in other forms, like activists submitted a memorandum to the state Minister for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, seeking redressal for the issue.

TNM report says that it is not just the number, but the way seats are divided between streams is also an issue. When most of the SC students wish to pursue the Humanities stream, most number ST reserved seats were allocated in the Science stream.

After the protests, the government added 25 more class 11 seats for ST in Wayanad, but still, many are left out. The seats were increased without consultation with tribal students, without increasing the number of batches in schools and ultimately without improving the quality of education, Mary Lidya, state co-ordinator of Adisakthi Summer School, told TNM. Even after spot admissions post regular allotments, scores of candidates were left out.

To address this huge gap faced by ST students, activists demand a separate batch in schools where the number of tribal students is high.

Admission of ST students to be ensured in the first phase of allotment, no diverting of ST seats to the general category until their admission is closed, increase seats for the community to 60 in Model Residential Schools (MRS) and Humanities, Commerce and Science batches needed to be opened there, day scholar batches in MRS, tribal hamlets wise learning system for Primary and Secondary level education etc.