Hyderabad: In a rare achievement, 93 first generation learners from the Telangana tribal and social welfare residential schools have cracked the JEE Advanced and are likely to grab a seat in the IITs. Last year, 36 students had entered the IITs.
A. Venkatesh who secured the 23rd rank in the ST category, said, “Though it was a bit stressful, I could do it with the help of balanced environment that was created in our institute.”
He aims for a career in the civil services.His mother A. Susheela who works as an agricultural labourer supported him.
Venkatesh said he was only five when his father Redya Naik died in an accident in an agricultural field.
P. Vidwan Gagan, who secured the 847th rank in the SC category, is the son of autorickshaw driver P. Ramesh of Warangal.
He said he used to walk in the campus and enjoy the greenery to drestress.
An official of the residential welfare schools society said that most students who cracked the JEE Advanced were children of autorickshaw drivers, masons, roadside tea sellers, landless labourers, security guards, daily wage labourers, taxi drivers and domestic helps.
K. Srinivas Kalyan, 156
“We don’t have the concept of dividing students based on their merit. We use peer group teaching techniques, where students of all levels are grouped together to help each other. There are yoga classes in the morning and sports in the evening to relieve students from stress,” Mr Y. Satyanarayana, principal of the IIT-Neet coaching institute run by the government at Gowlidoddi in Gachibowli.
“It is immensely satisfying to see that hundreds of students from SC/ST communities making a mark for themselves in the country’s toughest exam. This success means a lot to them and their poverty-stricken families,” said Dr R.S. Praveen Kumar, secretary, Telangana Social and Tribal Welfare Residential Educational Institutes Society.
