“Higher Education is a distant dream”: Report on the feasibility of setting up a Tribal University (“autonomous institution / knowledge centre”) – Kerala

FEASIBILITY STUDY REPORT ON SETTING UP A CENTRAL TRIBAL UNIVERSITY OR ITS REGIONAL CENTRE IN KERALA STATE

View or download the full report here >>

Kerala State Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Thiruvananthapuram on its notice dated 31.01.2014 cited, enquired the feasibility of setting up a Tribal University in Kerala. The Kerala State Higher Education Council wide its order No. 54/KSHEC/Cl. Mtngs/2014 dat ed 21.03.2014 constituted a Committee with Dr. Veeramanikandan as Convenor, Dr. Sheena Shukkur, Prof. C. I. Abdul Rahiman.

The Committee was reconstituted with two more experts namely, Dr. Aby George and Sri. Jaleesh Peter to explore the possibilities of establishing Tribal University in Kerala. The Committee conducted an assessment of the feasibility of setting up a Tribal University in Kerala. […]

2. The Committee studied the tribal scenario in Kerala and found that education especially the Higher Education is a distant dream for a large percentage of tribal population in the State. The Committee feels that an arrangement for imparting education to the tribal community – from pre-primary to post doctoral level – should be an important area of priority for the State. […]

3. The Committee understands the following.
(i) In Kerala we have 1, 00,912 tribal families with a total population of 4, 01,401 tribal peoples*. They belong to 40 different tribal communities spread over all the 14 districts with maximum number of people in Wayanad and minimum in Alappuzha districts. Among these 26, 000 people belong to Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTG) whose social, economic and educational situation is extremely poor and deserves special attention*.

* Basic information about the Tribal Committees in Kerala, November 2011, ST Department, Govt. of Kerala.

3. (ii) It is estimated that 72% of the tribal people are literate. […]

Given this overall status of education among the tribal communities we have to work out a new system of education to address the specific tribal educational issues. […]

3. (iv) The Committee noted that the drop outs among the tribal students are a serious issue. […] Most of the tribal people are still depending on agriculture, minor forest produce collections, wage labour, etc, as their source of livelihood. […]

3. (v) Given the fact that tribal people in Kerala are spread across the state and mostly inhabit in forests and backward areas, setting up a normal University system of education may not adequately address the specific educational requirements of these communities.

4. The Committee contemplated in detail and suggests that a new and innovative educational arrangement may be explored. The Committee recommends that “an autonomous institution / knowledge centre” in the model of Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Bhubaneswar, Odisha may be considered as a model for this purpose. Such a Centre should be empowered to conduct courses, training programmes, research and extension activities on all Kerala basis pertaining to all aspects of tribal life and sustainable development. This “autonomous institution / knowledge centre” should be in a position to conduct courses from school to post Doctoral levels to the tribal community students. The special emphasis should be given to vocational training. […]