Much to Do in Tribal Youth Education
The tribal education system in India is broken to the extent where a straightforward recovery to a practical, result oriented output in the form of well educated, properly qualified youth from the tribal communities who can have the options of taking up either any mainstream profession or something traditional, can no longer be the dream of anyone involved in the field of tribal education!
Necessity of a Long Term National Educational Plan
Education remains the top most priority of most of the leading nations in the world today.
The American education spend increased by over 20% from 2007 to 2020. Their democratic party has a keen eye to build a strong front to combat the world challenges of tomorrow.
India has struggled since our freedom to scale up education & corruption in various strata of our functioning have debilitated our chances of not only getting the right education but be in a position to bring about a change in both personal & community lives.
While the Indian government has the right intentions & forward policies to assist the tribal communities in many ways, implementations & implementer of such policies at the grass roots have been the main reasons to stall progress in most cases, & destroy people’s trust in the systems & in the democratic processes.
For the students, it has been frustrating for the most who depend on their personal effort & talent while the affluent ones get by with viable diplomas & college degrees from private institutes.
The situation is appalling overall! This 2019 Indian Express report calls out that 80% of the graduates from engineering colleges find themselves without a job!
The IITs & its associated institutes carry a glimmer of hope for the Indian students & is the solitary flag bearer in the race to put Indian students & the quality of education somewhere close to the global standards.
Overcoming Regional Social & Economic Challenges
Jay Shakuntala Welfare Foundation, a women led tribal welfare non-profit organization is putting in their focus in enabling education within the tribal youth of Chhattisgarh. The effort is monumental but the determination is strong!
The challenges are numerous – from the lack of basic infrastructures to the social traditions that force youth who have come of age to drop out of school to earn for their families. Early marriage rituals within the tribal communities add to the list of problems that prevent even the talented youth to spare time & pursue their educational goals.
Exposure to the Art of Possibility
It is probably no longer fair to call something that is widely practices globally for a dozen years now as the “Art of Possibility”. However, at the grass roots level, the youth and the students’ communities often do not get exposed to “what is out there” & depend completely on local media or those who are the noisiest on social platforms.
Rarely any of these groups have the best interest of the students & mostly turn their activities to agitating masses with either half baked information or complete misinformation. The social platforms today have fueled the outburst of such disinformation campaigns but there does not seem to be any quick solution in sight either with millions of such posts & tweets being taken down every quarter.
Along with pushing ahead with the national curriculum, the youth and the talented students need access to books & modern learning tools & technologies.
Continuous guidance, mentoring & course-correction is needed to avoid distractions and the inherent tendencies of communities to fall back on practices that have proved fatal in the past.
Jay Shakuntala Welfare Foundation’s effort in setting up community owned libraries, a loosely coupled operational process that allows local community heads & students to decide on the types of books preferred & the types of support required & a central governance & supply chain process to spread the habit of reading, could go a long way in establishing the love of books & benefit for modern technologies when seeking information, guidance or counseling.
Women’s Education is Key to Global Prosperity
Women’s education has always been on the back burner. A society is doomed to crumble when the women of the societies are forced to remain in the dark & away from the mainstream education systems. Jay Shakuntala Welfare Foundation has taken a less trodden path – creating self sustaining community libraries along with a mentorship program to assist the really serious student with coaching & guidance along the way.
You can help!
If you are passionate about education & wish to expand your passion working with tribal youth of India, either in person or remotely, feel free to connect with us on Twitter or Facebook & send us a direct message. We would like to speak with you soon! Also, don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube Channel @ExploreIndiaTV.
