A student airs her grievances to Collector R. Sukumar at the special counselling event held in Tirunelveli on Thursday.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
A special counselling session was organised at the District Collectorate on Thursday by the Department of School Education to guide and help those students, who have passed Plus Two but were not pursuing higher studies in colleges due to a range of reasons, including poverty.
When the Plus Two public examination results were declared in May, the Department of School Education created a career guidance counselling centre at the Collectorate which is being manned by teachers and academic counsellors to guide the students towards their higher education based on the marks they had scored. This counselling centre can be contacted via 95003 24417, 95005 24417.
Moreover, Chief Educational Officer M. Sivakumar asked the teachers handling Plus Two to contact each Plus Two student, who had passed in the public examination, and get details about his or her higher studies plans and the admission they have been given in colleges.
If the teachers happened to come across any student who had passed Plus Two but did not apply for admission in the college due to any specific reason, the teachers were asked to share the names of those students with the CEO.
To counsel those dropouts and bring them back to higher education, the Department of School Education organised this event at the Collectorate on Thursday. Of the 13,285 students passed in the Plus Two public examination held in last March, 1,035 students were found to be dropouts, thanks to the strenuous work completed by the teachers in the first two weeks of June.
With the help of their teachers and other officials, these 1,035 students were contacted to understand if they were really interested in pursuing their higher studies. After realising their problems, the dropouts were requested to attend today’s special guidance and counselling programme in which academics from various fields addressed the students.
Moreover, officials from District Child Protection Unit and Departments of Backward Class Welfare, Adi Dravida Welfare and Public Health and Lead Bank also spoke and met the students personally to clarify their doubts and understand their problems.
Students who have lost their father or mother or both were counselled and assured that they would be supported financially for continuing their studies. Those who were interested in continuing their higher studies after the counselling session were immediately handed over to the officials to ensure their admission in the courses of their choice if they had enough cut-off marks. Those who did not have enough cut-off mark for certain courses were counselled to opt for other courses.
“Our objective is to ensure the unhindered studies of students after Plus Two. This meeting was organised to understand the reasons behind dropping-out of education system and addressing it. We’ve identified the dropouts and assured them of all support for their higher education and hence we hope that all the dropouts now will become graduates at least by continuing their higher education,” said District Collector R. Sukumar, who appealed to the teachers and the public to inform the district administration about the dropouts, if any, in their areas for taking due and early measures to admit them in colleges.
The Collector honoured the government school students who have scored high marks in NEET and got admission in Indian Institutes of Technology. Five students received ₹3,500 each from the Collector’s discretionary funds for paying their tuition fee in the college.
Mr. Sivakumar and other government officials participated in the meeting.
Published – June 19, 2025 06:37 pm IST