CHENNAI: The school education department has reached out to about 62,000 students, who failed classes 10 and 12, to participate in the school management committee (SMC) meetings that will be held on Wednesday. As the students were not interested in writing supplementary examinations, the department is planning to encourage them to enrol in ITI and polytechnic colleges to ensure they acquire the skills required to get jobs, said officials.
According to the department, they have sent letters to the parents and also contacted them over the phone. “We sent copies of the chief minister’s letter to the parents asking them to ensure they participate in the SMC meeting along with their children. The SMC members have been provided with the details of nearby polytechnic and ITI institutes to guide the students,” said an official.
“We expect more than half of the students to participate in the drive tomorrow. Efforts to contact the rest of the students will also continue till the end of this month. This will be done through SMC observers across the state. Since there are no fees for studying in ITI institutes, apart from providing stipend and other benefits, we expect many students to join these institutes,” he added.
The department is also working along with the commissionerate of employment and training to ensure that the students study further. There are more than 18,000 seats in 101 ITI institutes across the state. “The ITI institutes have 78 trades that were created based on industry needs and employability. Since there is a huge demand for those who come out of ITI institutes, the students have the chance of getting jobs immediately.
At present, 45% of the seats in ITI institutes have been filled and admissions are underway. Last year, 93% of the seats were filled. We are working alongside the school education department to ensure that the students know about these opportunities,” said an assistant director at the commissionerate of employment and training.
30K students guided under the Uyarvukku Padi scheme
Out of 30,269 students who were given guidance in the three phases of the ‘Uyarvukku Padi’ scheme across the state, 15,713 have joined higher education institutions of their choice - 7,884 will join arts and science colleges, 2,144 will join engineering courses, 1,461 in polytechnics, 1,876 in ITI and 2,348 in other higher education courses, according to a government release.
The first phase of the scheme was carried out from June 22 to 27 in 34 divisions across the state, phase 2 from June 30 to July 4 in 38 divisions and the third phase was held from July 7 to 8 in 21 divisions. During the 2022-23 academic year, 3.23 lakh students had cleared the Class 12 examination from government and aided schools, but only 2.4 lahks applied for higher education. Taking note of the situation, the state government launched the initiative to ensure dropouts enrol in higher educational institutions.