TRIBAL EDUCATION - CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES

Tribal education is the litmus test of the social sector welfare role of the state. The tribal stay outside the urban and rural fringes and live with social-cultural values that are distinctly different to the mainstream society. It is a cruel joke that people who can produce some of India's most exquisite handicrafts, who can distinguish hundreds of species of plants and animals who can survive off forests, the lands and the streams sustainably, with no need to go to the market to buy food, are labeled as unskilled. And we the mainstream urban consider ourselves to be skilled and superior. We in the mainstream are superior knowledge and skill, no doubt about it. But it is superiority to attest to the highest call of development that is sustainable development. We, the mainstream, are pursuing the parameters of globalisation in pursuit of global material life reflecting in our education especially higher education. The tribal education can be assessed on the following issues - Separate Ashramshala schools for tribal children; Medium of instruction; Teachers at school; Our school curriculum; Right to education and the tribal children