KOCHI: He used to roam around the tribal hamlet on Wayanad’s hillocks deep inside the forest. Born into a community with the highest school dropout rate in Kerala, cultural differences posed hurdles in his pursuit of knowledge.
But K P Prasanth, a Kuruma youth, had the fire within to chase his dream. He is among the 250 students who have secured the SC/ST development department’s scholarship in the past 18 months to pursue foreign education.
“We’ve implemented several schemes in the past 50 years for the uplift of SC/ST students. They can compete with other communities only through good education and jobs,” SC/ST Welfare Minister K Radhakrishnan told TNIE.
“Only 62 students had availed the foreign education scheme until 2021. However, in the past 18 months, we provided Rs 25 lakh each to 250 students, 15 of whom hail from ST,” he said.
A BCom graduate from St Joseph’s College Devagiri, Kozhikode, Prasanth had applied for MBA at Anglia Ruskin University in England and was planning to apply for educational loan when he learnt about the scholarship. “The department was very supportive and processed my application in 10 days,” he said.
Neethu studying MSc in Birmingham
Prasanth’s father is an ambulance driver at Muttil Vivekananda Hospital in Wayanad and mother is a nurse. The family lives in Kolipatta colony in Kaniyambatta settlement. “I’m in the second semester and my course will end by December. Of the Rs 28 lakh course fee, the department gave Rs 25 lakh and my family arranged the rest. It’s an innovative course and I’m confident of landing a job,” he said.
Neethu Prabhakaran of Ambalavayal had completed her engineering in Electronics and Communication from Mar Athanasius College, Kothamangalam, in 2017 and was preparing for civil services examination. Later, she decided to pursue MSc in Data Analytics at Aston University in Birmingham, UK. “The department processed my application in one month.
The course fee is Rs 23.5 lakh and accommodation cost will come to `8 lakh for which I have availed a loan. I joined last September,” said Neethu. Neethu’s father P C Prabhakaran, an ASI with CISF, serves at Kochi airport while her mother Sudha is a homemaker. “I belong to the Kuruma community. I studied in Kendriya Vidyalaya and am fluent in English and Hindi.
I enjoy the studies and environment here,” she said. SC/ST Welfare Minister Radhakrishnan said foreign education will open new avenues to the students and they will get good jobs abroad.
Tribal development assistant director Y Bipindas said, “The scholarship has created lot of enthusiasm among the students and we are getting lots of enquiries. However, some recruitment agencies have started exploiting them. students. We are planning an awareness campaign in the community.”