Adivasi kids roped in to woo more to school

Adivasi students with crowns, colours and medals at Pangidimadara gudem   

Tribal students, called as STARS wearing colorful crowns and gold medal in necks, took the lead to attract their own community children who were out of school and also bringing new children to schools in many Adivasi gudems of Adilabad district.

It is for the first time, tribal students are trying to bring their community children to bring on the education path as they think that it is the only tool which can change their lives. Tribal teachers are vigorously campaigning in the villages to attract the students into Tribal Ashram schools.

The ongoing Badibata panduga programme is being observed as festival of colors in the tribal villages with senior students wearing crowns and applying different colors to their palms and visiting house to house to attract the children to schools.

This is very visible in some of the Adivasi gudems and Maoist-affected interior Pangidimadara village in Tiryani mandal is best example to this.

Teachers are welcoming the new students offering biscuits and giving them crowns. This kind of festival of colours is a rare and first time experience to many Adivasi children who were coming out of their gudems.

Pangidimadara Sarpanch Tumram Gopal said they were celebrating the Badibata panduga as colours festival as children like colors and expressed happiness over good number of Adivasi children joining the tribal ashram schools this year.

He said even parents are coming forward to send their children to schools and added that most of the Adivasi children used to end up as baby sitters in the past.

The Kolam Vidyarthi Sangham and Adivasi Vidyarthi Sangham are also making serious efforts to bring the Adivasis children and get them admit at Tribal Ashram schools.

Kotnak Bheemrao, teacher at Pagidimadara Tribal Ashram school, said that there was good response to the Badibata program this year unlike in the past as teachers, villagers and headmaster of the schools involved themselves in the programme to improve the enrollment of the students.