50 dropouts admitted in colleges in Tirunelveli district

The spot admission organised here on Friday by District Collector R. Sukumar to ensure the continued higher studies of the students after Plus Two brought 50 possible dropouts back to educational stream.

After the Plus Two results were declared, the Collector established a Career Guidance and Counselling Centre at the Collectorate. The experts and the teachers manning this Centre were guiding and counselling the students for getting admission in the courses and the colleges of their choice based on the marks they had scored.

Meanwhile, the Collector also asked the teachers handling Plus Two to collect details about their students who have got admission in the college and the course they had joined. After collecting this information, the teachers shared it with the Chief Educational Officer Sivakumar and the Career Guidance and Counselling Centre at the Collectorate so that the dropouts could easily be identified.

The dropouts and their parents or guardians were contacted over the phone to pinpoint the reason behind their children becoming dropout. If it was due to poverty, Mr. Sukumar arranged for funds from the philanthropists, major hospitals, private firms to pay the tuition fee. If they could not get admission in a college or course of their choice due to low marks, they were counselled about the alternative courses they can join and the future prospects if they can do well.

In the first phase, a ‘spot admission’ programme was organised at the Collectorate to ensure admission for the dropouts. While the poor students were helped financially, others’ admission in the colleges were facilitated with the help of the heads of the colleges.

Since the Plus Two students who had appeared for the supplementary examinations were waiting for admission in the colleges, the second ‘spot admission’ event was organised on Friday in which representatives from two government, 10 government-aided and 12 self-finance colleges participated.

“Of the 55 students attended this programme, 50 students got admission in the colleges,” said officials of Department of School Education.

When a poor girl student, who had lost her parents to cancer, participated in the ‘spot admission’ programme, Mr. Sukumar got her admission in B.Sc. Zoology in Rani Anna Government College for Women, Pettai, here and immediately sanctioned ₹10,000 from the Collector’s Discretionary Funds to pay the tuition, hostel fees and uniform.