Telangana turns focus on tribals schools

Adilabad: The state government has decided to fill up the vacant posts of Vidya Volunteers (VV) at the Tribal Welfare Schools with candidates from local Adivasi Communities in view of the ongoing agitation for self-rule and boycotting of Lambada teachers.

The state government has asked the district administrations to fill up the posts according to the GO-3 issued long back by the United Andhra Pradesh.   

Adilabad district collector Divya Devarajan said her officials were in the process of filling up all vacant posts of Vidya Volunteers with eligible candidates from the Adivasi gudem in a week so that the schools could run without break. She said the list of the new Vidya Volunteers would be announced in three days. 
Ms Devarajan said they were also filling up nearly 300 vacant posts of Anganwadi workers with Adivasi candidates in Adilabad district.

Many tribal ashram welfare schools currently remain closed after students boycotted Lambada teachers with some of them even going back to their villages.

The Adivasis are also not allowing the Anganwdi workers from Lambada community in their gudems as part of their ongoing agitation for self-rule and demand for removal of the community from the list of Scheduled Tribes.

The Adivasis are distributing copies of their gram sabha resolution passed unanimously as well as the PESA Act to remove teachers and Anganwadi staffers from Lambada community working in many villages in the old Adilabad district.

Adivasi students playing in front of closed tribal welfare ashram schools have become a common sight in villages in the agency areas in Jainoor, Sirpur ( U), Narnoor, Tiryani, Indravelli and Utnoor mandals in old Adilabad district. The government is concerned that the situation will badly affect the studies of children, officials said.

Students of the Tribal Welfare School in Bela boycotted the Lambada teachers and some of them even vacated the hostel refusing to attend classes taken by Lambada teachers. Eight out of the 10 teachers in the school are from Lambada community.

Very few students pass-ed in the subjects taught by Lambada teachers in the supplementary examinations in several tribal ashram schools.