Improving access to education through establishment of educational Institutions & construction of Hostels for ST & SC Boys & Girls in the State.

Educational development of the ST & SC communities & improving access to educational facilities through residential educational institutions has been an identified thrust area of the Department. Odisha was among the pioneers in setting up of Residential Educational Institutions since the initial years.

Over the years, the Department have established 164 Boys High Schools, 173 Girls High School, 61 Higher Secondary Schools, 766 Ashram Schools (Elementary level), 505 Sevashrams (Primary level), 19 Educational Complexes for providing education facilities to students belonging to the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs), 2 Secondary Training School, 1 B.Ed. College and 13 Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS) managed by the Odisha Model Tribal Education Society (OMTES). During the year 2016-17, 21 High Schools have been upgraded to Higher Secondary Schools, besides upgrading 65 Ashram School to High Schools. All educational amenities like school uniforms, reading & writing materials, payment of HSC Exam fees are provided to the students free of cost besides providing incidental facilities in the hostels such as Cots, Blankets, Utensils, Mosquito Nets etc. Construction of Hostels for ST & SC students has been one of the flagship scheme of the Deptt. Over the years, the Deptt have sanctioned 6375 hostels in its own educational institutions as also in educational institutions of other Deptt like School & Mass Education, Higher Education Deptt etc.

The District wise List of Schools according to type is given below:

Pre-Matric & Post-Matric Scholarship to ST & SC students:

Payment of Scholarships to eligible ST& SC students is a major flagship programme of the Deptt. Under this scheme, Pre-matric Scholarship is paid to eligible ST & SC Boarders & Day Scholars of SC & SC Dev Deptt Schools as well as students of School & Mass Edn Deptt schools. The funds towards payment of Scholarship to SC/ST students (Day Scholars from VI-VIII & Boarders from Class I to X is fully borne by the State Govt. Post-Matric Scholarship is paid to eligible ST & SC students through the web-based Portal PRERANA directly into the Bank Account of student beneficiaries.

Rates of Scholarship (Click here)

New Interventions under Educational Development

(i) ANWESHA – Urban Education Programme for ST SC children.

In consistent with the objective of providing best of educational opportunities to ST SC students, State Government has initiated a new scheme from 2015-16 named “ANWESHA” to provide quality education to ST & SC students in partnership with urban educational institutions of the State. The scheme is a pioneering initiative of the State Government to facilitate disadvantaged ST & SC students to receive quality education provided by public schools. Under this scheme, it is envisaged to admit 5,000 ST & SC students Class -I annually in different Private/ Aided/ Govt Schools of repute located in District headquarters/ Urban areas and to provide them education till their completion of Class X. The entire cost of their education, including tuition fee, uniform, books & study materials, transportation to schools and post-school tutoring is borne by the State Government. State Government has also created facilities for free accommodation and food for the students in different hostels with provision of full time Wardens and Cook-cum-Attendants. The Schools are selected & empanelled by the District Level Committee on the basis of criteria like recognition of school, availability of infrastructure, qualification of Teachers, PTR, academic performance etc. The beneficiary students are selected through a Lottery system by the District Level Committee under the Chairmanship of District Collector.

ANWESHA is currently operational in 17 tribal concentrated districts of the State. During the inaugural year i.e. 2015-16, 2708 tribal students were admitted in Class I of different Public Schools. The response during 2016-17 was even better with another 5489 students being admitted in Class I of different public schools. About 135 public schools across 17 districts have currently partnered in the programme. In the next 5 years about 25,000 students are envisaged to be covered under the ANWESHA programme. It is expected that the initiative will go a long way in nurturing the inherent talent among ST SC students and steer them to spirit of competitiveness and excellence thereby benefitting them in their student career.

(ii) AKANSHYA – Urban Hostel Complex for Post-matric ST SC students

Over the years, the different interventions of the State Government have greatly contributed in increasing the progression of ST/SC students to Post-matric levels of education. However, the limited presence of higher educational institutions poses a hindrance to poor ST/SC students hailing from remote pockets to continue their higher studies as they have to incur additional expenses towards accommodation and other incidental expenses due to unavailability or limited availability of seats in the hostels of different Institutions in urban areas. Many of the ST/SC students although are able to secure admission in good educational institutions, but are often unable get appropriate seats in hostels. This situation forces them to either opt out of higher education or stay in rented accommodation which further aggravates their economic hardship.

Visualizing this problem faced by ST SC students, the Department has constructed 2 urban hostel complexes in Bhubaneswar- one at Pokhariput for Girl students and the other at Kalinga Vihar for Boys students in order to facilitate Higher Education for ST & SC students. These hostels having the capacity to accommodate 500 students in the ratio of 80% for STs and 20% for SCs provide accommodation free of cost to the students perusing post-matric Professional, Technical, Degree and +2 courses in institutions located in Bhubaneswar. While the Urban Hostel at Pokhariput with 251 girl boarders have been made operational from the acaademic Year 2016-17; the Urban Hostel at Kalinga Vihar for Boy Students will be made operational from 2017-18.

Considering the importance of creating such residential facilities for ST SC students in other major urban education hubs in the State, steps have been initiated during 2016-17 to establish another six new Urban Hostels at Berhampur, Sambalpur & Rourkela; 2 in each location - one for Boys and one for Girls.