TRICHY: For 17-year-old S Prasanth, son of tribal farmers from the Jawadhu Hills in Tiruvannamalai district, years of parental hard work have culminated in a dream come true. Soon, he will walk into the campus of NIT Puducherry as an engineering student, a milestone he believes will transform not only his future but also that of his family.
Prasanth is one of six students from Tamil Nadu who studied in schools run by the Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare Department and secured seats in premier institutions after the first round of JoSAA (Joint Seat Allocation Authority) counselling results announced on Saturday. While four students gained admission to top institutes last year, this year six students have succeeded in the first round, with officials expecting the number to rise after all counselling rounds conclude.
Of the six, five belong to the tribal community and one to the Scheduled Caste community. Niranjana R, a student of ADW school in Nachikulam, Madurai district, secured a seat in metallurgical and materials engineering at NIT Andhra Pradesh. Three students — Bharath S from GTR school in Mullukurichi, Namakkal district; Sivakanth A from GTR school in Top Sengattupatty, Trichy district; and Dharmashree S from EMRS School in Abivanam, Salem district — have secured seats at NIT Trichy in instrumentation and control engineering, civil engineering, and metallurgical and materials engineering, respectively. The other two, Divakar A and Prasanth S, from GTR Schools in Nammiyampattu and Attiyanur in Tiruvannamalai district, secured seats at Puducherry Technological University and NIT Puducherry (Karaikal), respectively, for Electrical and Electronics Engineering.
“During the half-yearly holidays, we were given training at a camp in Mallur by the department, which was very helpful to get selected in JEE mains. Then in Cuddalore, we were trained for cracking JEE Advanced, which is considered a very tough competitive exam,” says Dharmashree S, whose parents are farmers in the Kolli hills of Namakkal district.
Department sources told TOI that intensive training was conducted for the students to achieve these results. “There were three training camps. One during quarterly and half-yearly holidays. Then after public exams, and now even as they have cleared, we continue to give preparatory training camp at EMRS Kumizhi.”
Eighteen tribal students have also secured seats at the Central Institute of Petrochemicals Engineering & Technology (CIPET) in Bhubaneswar through the CIPET JEE entrance exam, the source added. “All expenses for all the students are to be borne by the Tamil Nadu government,” the source said.
HM V Nagarajan of Top Sengattupatti in Trichy district said the GTR school has consistently performed well on all fronts. “The results just motivate us to do better every time for the betterment of students,” he said.
