Indian Tribal News Service
New Delhi
At a time when the Government is showcasing its thrust on tribals and their education through the Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS), a Parliamentary panel has pointed out that the project is way off its target of number of units.
The Government is nowhere near achieving its original target of building 452 Eklavya Model Residential Schools by 2022 and has thus extended the deadline to 2025, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment said and expressed dismay over the tardy pace of work.
In its report tabled in Lok Sabha, the panel, headed by BJP MP Rama Devi, lamented that there is a substantial gap between the number of schools proposed to be sanctioned and the actual sanction.
Interestingly, it also cited how of the 288 schools sanctioned in 1997-98, prior to revamping of the scheme in 2018-19, only 244 schools could be made functional.
“The original target, which aimed that 452 new Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRSs) including 12 Eklavya Model Day Boarding School (EMDBS) would be set up in the remaining 462 sub-districts by the year 2022 is nowhere near completion and the target year stands revised as 2025 now,” the panel said in its report.
“The committee is surprised to note that out of 452 schools proposed to be sanctioned as per the phasing plan between 2018-2019 and 2021-2022, only 350 schools could be sanctioned and the remaining 102 schools are remaining to be sanctioned as the location for these schools is yet to be finalised,” the panel said
The construction work of only 202 schools has been completed till date and the construction work of 20 schools is yet to begin. The construction work of 66 schools is targeted to be completed by October 2024, it said.
The committee observed that a minimum of 15 acres of land is required for establishing EMRS in a sub-district having 50 per cent ST population and at least 20,000 tribal persons and a minimum of five acres of land is required for establishing Eklavya Model Day Boarding School (EMDBS) in a sub-district having 90 per cent ST population.
The panel said it is perturbed to note that despite a provision of relaxation on the minimum requirement of land in the Northeast, hilly areas and Left Wing Extremism-affected zones in the guidelines, several discrepancies such as land not found technically suitable, land falling under forest area, etc. appear and since the process of resolving the issues takes time, there is a delay in acquisition of land.
The committee opined that the cumbersome guidelines with regard to area/population need to be revisited as together these stipulation make acquisition of land for setting up of EMRS/EMDBS .
The panel said it was surprised to note that Bihar, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal have still not signed MoUs and are reluctant to shift to CBSE and are insisting on continuation of state board curriculum in these schools, whereas the norms stipulate that all EMRSs are to be affiliated with CBSE in order to grant better sum per child studying in these schools.
“The committee would like the Ministry of Tribal Affairs to vigorously pursue with the states and give them a time period to sign MoU with NESTS so that the norms established including affiliation of schools with CBSE Board are applicable to them for smooth running of schools…,” it said.
The committee also said it is astonished to note that the ministry has not been able to identify location for establishing two Centre of Excellence (CoE) for sports with specialized state-of-the-art facilities for one identified individual sport and one group sport for which preliminary sanction has been issued out of the 15 such centres proposed to be set up in tribal majority districts in each state and union territory and Rs 127 lakh has been sanctioned.
