Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram on Tuesday said that over 700 more Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS) will be functional by 2022 to provide quality education for tribal students.
“We are satisfied with the response to these schools. We have plans to add more than 700 Eklavya Model Residential Schools in different blocks of the country by 2022. As per our plans any block with more than 50 per cent tribal population or a block having at least 20,000 tribal population will have the residential school. Around 200 EMRS are functional in the country and as per government study, there are nearly 564 blocks meeting the criteria will be covered under EMRS scheme over the next three years,” said Oram.
The Minister was in city as a chief guest for inaugural function of the two-day maiden national level Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS) music competition at Tata Auditorium in XLRI.
The government is committed to provide the best quality education to the tribal children in their own environment, Oram said. Each of the schools will have 50 per cent boys and girls tribal candidates. The BJP MP representing Sundargarh parliamentary constituency in Odisha informed that Rs 6,000 crore have been given for setting up of such schools in the financial year 2018-19 and by 2022 Rs 25,000 crore will be spent by the government on opening of such centers.
“ The Ekalavya Schools will be on par with the Navodaya Vidyalayas and have special facilities for preserving local art and culture besides providing training in sports and skill development. The schools follow CBSE pattern offer free residential schooling for tribal students and in the recent years several EMRS have achieved 100 per cent passed result with 60-70 per cent students having passed with first class distinction. Students from these schools are also qualifying engineering entrance examinations and joining IITs and IIMs,” explained Oram.
The minister also informed that government has increased the scholarship amount for meritorious students from this fiscal.
