Defying all odds, the students of the Telangana welfare schools are on a success spree. After 506 students cracked the JEE-Mains in May this year, a total of 93 students have cracked JEE-Advanced and now are qualified for admissions at various IITs around the country.
Of the total 93, 20 students from social welfare institutes and 27 students from tribal welfare residential institutes will secure admission in IITs. The remaining 46 students will get into IIT preparatory courses. A significant number of these students are first generation learners from their rural villages and tribal hamlets. The number of social and tribal welfare students securing IIT seats has increased notably from 36 in 2018 to 93 in 2019.
The Telangana welfare residential schools, under the guidance of secretary RS Praveen Kumar, have been providing free intensive long-term IIT residential coaching program for students of social and tribal welfare residential educational institutions under the KG-PG mission. Most of the students who have cracked the IIT exam this year are sons and daughters of auto drivers, masons, roadside tea sellers, landless labourers, security guards, daily wage labourers, taxi drivers and domestic househelps belonging to the SC and ST communities.
Susheela, the mother of A Venkatesh who secured 83rd rank in the SC/ST category, said, “With my financial hardships, providing IIT coaching to my son was beyond my limit. I thank the government for providing free residential IIT coaching to poor students. If not for the government’s support, my son would not have been able to achieve his dream.”
K Srinivas Kalyan secured all India rank of 156 and Rathod Anand Kishore bagged the 205th rank in the SC category. In the ST category, Vidwan Gagan secured the 847th rank while D Praveen Kumar and Rajinikesh Vardhan secured the 1770th rank.
Thanking the government for their support, secretary Praveen Kumar said the credit for the success goes to students and the dedicated teachers for their hard work and sincerity.
“It is immensely satisfying to see that hundreds of students from SC/ST communities are creating a mark for themselves in the country’s toughest exam and this success means a lot to them and their poverty-stricken families,” he added.
Proving their mettle, both in the intermediate board and Class X results that were declared last month, the students of the welfare schools outperformed other government colleges and private colleges in the state by a big margin.
In the senior inter results, students of the welfare institutions surpassed the state average with a pass percentage of 84.31% as compared to the state’s average pass percentage of 64.8%. Nine schools of the total 142 schools had 100% pass results in Class X.