ASHRAMSHALA'S FOR TRIBAL EDUCATION – A STUDY

Ashramshalas are a major tool of the government to address the
educational concern of the tribal students. They are educational entities
which are exclusively for the education of the tribal children and are
located in tribal-density populations. They intend to cater to the special
cultural and educational needs of the tribes. The deficiencies in tribal
education, in the form of ashramshala’s, are due to the mainstream
society following a school-education model that caters only to the urban
mainstream culture, not matching the xenocentric tribal culture. The
government and private aided patronage school systems with their
infrastructure and academics militate and alienate the tribal children
from their own culture, occupational patterns, language and identity.
Ashram schools’ overall academic and administrative quality; Access
and Participation; Enrollment; Retention; Language of Instruction;
Curriculum Content; Teachers and Pedagogy; Community Participation
and Ownership are some of the important issues that need to be
addressed for improvement in tribal children’s education. A comparative
study of the academic performance of tenth standard students in
government and private aided schools reveals that a lot needs to be done
by the government, mainstream society and parents to raise the standards
of tribal education overall.