706 Telangana Backward Students Qualify For JEE (Advanced)

A whopping 432 students of the Telangana Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions and 274 students of the Telangana Tribal Welfare Residential Educational Institutions qualified in the JEE (Mains) 2020 and scored high percentiles on par with students of the corporate colleges.

Sravan Kumar of TSWR (IIT-Medical) Academy, Gowlidoddi, scored 99.51 percentile, and a tribal boy Katroth Anil from the Tribal Welfare IIT Study Centre, Rajendra Nagar, scored 94.05 percentile.

Naini Mamatha, a girl belonging to a Particularly Vulnerable Primitive Group (PVTG) and studying in the Tribal Welfare Junior College at Hayath Nagar scored 89.11 percentile.

What makes their feats remarkable is that they are first generation students at this level from their families - sons and the daughters of daily wage earners, agricultural laborers, vegetable vendors, roadside tea sellers, security guards auto drivers.

These students proved that extreme poverty and a rural background are not impediments to making their mark in the country's toughest entrance exam if the right opportunities and guidance are provided.

Dr R S Praveen Kumar, Secretary, TSWREI and TTWREI Societies, congratulated the students for their outstanding performances, and said that the entire credit went to the committed teachers for their hard work in trying to get these students from the remote villages and tribal hamlets secure admission into the IITs and NITs in large numbers every year.

"This transformation was also made possible with the generous grant of funds by the government that has given approval for free long-term intensive residential JEE coaching for poor SC/ST students who can't afford coaching classes in corporate institutions," he added.

Dr Kumar also said that the students of the social and tribal welfare residential educational institutions had launched a silent academic revolution in Telangana by starting Village Learning Circles (VLCs) in the times of the coronavirus pandemic, wherein brilliant students with teaching skills were conducting classes for their peers and schoolmates in their localities. The VLCs had attracted the attention of educationists and teachers across India, and the initiative was hailed as path-breaking for reaching out to poor children who were deprived of smartphones, internet connectivity and TVs.

"Our students rose to the challenge and converted churches, temples, kitchens, verandahs, school buildings, panchayat offices, open agricultural fields and building rooftops into classrooms, and are keeping the light of education shining constantly in every poor home in these extraordinarily difficult Covid-19 pandemic times," he added.