The State Government’s bid to educate poor tribal children through its Eklavya residential schools got a very poor response as many children even after enrolling their names for entrance test did not turn up at the examination centre.
The Central Government aided Eklavya Model Residential Schools are meant for educating the tribal students who are lagging behind others. But the objective of these schools seemed to be failing following low turnout of students into them, apparently, for want of teachers’ interest.
The teachers, those in know, say should take initiative to bring eligible tribal children to schools but they seldom got to the houses of tribal and bring students to school. According to principal and nodal officer of the Eklavya model schools, Akhilesh Mishra, many students even after their enrolment for entrance test did not appear in it.
From Bastar locality, a total of 60 students had given their application for entrance test but only 58 appeared in the entrance test, similarly only 11 among the 18 enrolled students appeared in the entrance test from Jagdalpur block.
Among the 120 shortlisted candidates only 86 appeared in the entrance test from Bakawand block and there was no reason assigned to the absence of 34 children. So was the case with other examination centers in the State. The State has 60 vacant seats in its Eklavya model schools.