HYDERABAD: Dr BR Ambedkar Open University (BRAOU) will soon impart degree education to one lakh dropouts belonging to Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) in Telangana.
BRAOU is taking up the gigantic exercise on the request of the state government. Already BRAOU has prepared a detailed report regarding the financial and other requirements needed for the university to take up the exercise and soon admission notification will be announced.
“Dropouts is a serious problem and in spite of having desire to study, many are unable to pursue higher education due to social and financial problems. Dropout problem is mostly prevalent in lower income groups and downtrodden sections. Therefore, we have decided to take up the initiative of making one lakh people pursue degree courses belonging to SC and ST communities,’’ said Prof K Seetharama Rao, vice-chancellor of BRAOU.
The initiative is funded under SC/ST Sub Plan and BRAOU is taking steps to set up mandal resource centres (MRC) at all mandals to facilitate the programme.
“Though there are no official statistics regarding the exact number of dropouts from all communities and SC, ST communities in particular, the initiative is taken up on a largescale to ensure that any person who has dropped out gets an opportunity to complete graduation once again. We want to suggest government to even include dropouts from other sections like BCs and minorities in this scheme,” said Seetharama Rao.
Once the final modalities are fixed, BRAOU wants to take up an extensive campaign about the initiative to reach out to dropouts. As the government will fund the initiative, students can complete degree education free of cost. BRAOU authorities are taking steps to admit students under the initiative for academic year 2016-17 itself and therefore expediting the process of fixing all guidelines and get clearance from the state government within the next 20 days.