MALAPPURAM: Unmoved by the recent devastating floods that ravaged many tribal hamlets in the Nilambur forest region, folks from here on Friday attended SSLC equivalency test conducted by the National Institute of Open School hoping for a better future.
As many as 43 tribal men and women attended the exam which is said to be the highest number of tribal people attending the equivalency test at one go in the state, thanks to the special continuing education programmes ‘Vidya’ launched by the Jan Shikshan Sansthan (JSS), Malappuram district unit. All attendees were limping back to normal life after the devastating flood.
Launched in 2016, the programme had 50 people from various tribes settled in the Karulai panchayat who were kept out of a similar programme of the panchayat due to technical reasons.
The special equivalency programmes was reintroduced only for the tribal folks here after the panchayat was adopted by P.V. Abdul Wahab M.P as part of the union government’s Sansad Aadarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY).
Of the 50, one had died earlier and six others didn’t turn up for the exam for various reasons. 21 persons from the flood devastated Mundakkadavu colony alone have attended the exam.
The oldest among them is 40-year-old Rajagopal and the youngest is 20-year-old Sharika. The exam was held at Vivekananda Vocational Higher Secondary School, Palemad in Edakkara.
They first appeared for the seventh standard equivalency two years ago and completed with cent percent success. “JSS provided them classes on various subjects regularly by reaching out to their hamlets and making use of modern technologies such as talking pens. We have also used specially devised syllabus and specialised study materials to woo more tribes,” said V. Ummer Koya, district director of JSS.
Along with the programme the JSS also provided them vocational and skill enhancement training. Many of them attended classes after their works and daily chores, he said.
