Tribal students, coming from remote villages in the tribal belts of Gadchiroli, Gondia, Chandrapur, have now cleared JEE Main and CLAT (law).Most of these students are first-generation learners and, fortunately, have a drive to seek out higher education.
Ravindra Thakre, additional tribal commissioner (Nagpur division) said, “The latest JEE results saw 37 students making the cut and are all set to qualify for the JEE Advanced. Some students have come from Naxal-affected Gadchiroli apart from other tribal belts of eastern Vidarbha. We also have four students who have cleared CLAT and secured admission in National Law University at Nagpur.”
At the heart of this initiative is an experiment started by TDD in the remote Deori taluka (Gondia) in 2022.
Vikas Rachelwar, former project officer in Gondia, started an intensive residential coaching camp for tribal students to prepare them for competitive exams.
Rachelwar, who got transferred to Chandrapur a few days ago, said, “We selected tribal students studying in our ashramshalas as well as the Eklavya schools through an entrance exam. Deori is on the border of Maharashtra and Gondia and encompasses a rugged terrain with lot of tribal population living in small hamlets. Students have to come to nearby talukas for high school and then move on to cities for professional courses.”
Deori also has a well equipped residential school, the Eklavya School Deori, and that was chosen as the ‘camp’ for students. Being a government set-up, the entire four-month residential coaching camp was free for students.
Based on their aptitude, which is tested through the exam and later, a counselling, students are then trained specifically for their target exam. Rachelwar said, “For the first time (2023-24 academic session), we prepared students for not only JEE, but CLAT, NEET and state medical CET.”
Sanjay Bontawar, principal of the school, said, “We have multiple digital classrooms set up here apart from state-of-the-art laboratories for practicals. This year we had 165 tribal students in the coaching camp, of which 95 were females.” He added that last year only 60 students were part of the coaching camp.
Bontawar said, “From September 1 till October 31 the kids stayed here and our teachers worked with them to clear all doubts and prepare them for the exams.” The students were given a month’s break in November. “From December 1 till January 31 the students were back here and the second phase intensified the coaching process,” he added.
Rachelwar said, “Since the project has been going on for over a year, we have now come up with a good internal system. The notes we use were developed internally and in a language which students will understand.”
Teachers, who came both from within the TDD education wing and were hired on contractual basis, helped students transition from Marathi to English. Bontawar said, “We hired an English lecturer who focussed on language skills of students which helped immensly. It’s just a matter of some technical words as our students anyway learn English at school.”
Rachelwar said, “Four of our students have cleared the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) and secured admission in the National Law University at Nagpur.”
Now in Chandrapur, Rachelwar wants to replicate the project there. “My target is to get hundreds of our tribal students into professional courses and hopefully soon it will materialize,” said Rachelwar.