The government is nowhere close to achieving its original target of constructing 452 Eklavya model residential schools by 2022 and has thus extended the deadline till 2025, a parliamentary panel said and expressed disappointment over the slow pace of work. In its report tabled in the Lok Sabha, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment regretted that there is a substantial gap between the number of schools proposed to be sanctioned and the actual sanction.
The committee found that setting up of Eklavya Model Residential School (EMRS) in a sub-district with 50 percent ST population requires a minimum of 15 acres of land and at least 20,000 tribal persons and a minimum of five acres of land is required . Establishment of Eklavya Model Day Boarding School (EMDBS) in the sub-district having 90% ST population.
Till now the construction work of only 203 schools has been completed and the construction work of 20 schools is yet to start. The target is to complete the construction work of 67 schools by October 2024, it said.
The committee is surprised to note that out of 453 schools proposed to be sanctioned as per the phased plan between 2018-2019 to 2024-25, only 351 schools could be sanctioned and the remaining 102 schools were to be sanctioned as space for these. remains. The schools have not been finalized yet.
The Committee wished that such tribal areas with widely dispersed tribal population should not be denied the benefits of EMRS or EMDBS which are a means of their educational empowerment.
The panel said that it is of the opinion that these should be reviewed immediately and a viable solution should be worked out so that the delay in land acquisition can be avoided. The Committee recommended that such review should be done without compromising on the structural requirements of EMRS or EMDBS.
The panel said it was surprised to learn that three states – Bihar, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal – have still not signed the MoU and are reluctant to move to CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) and continue the state board syllabus.
Emphasis on keeping in these schools, while the norms stipulate that all EMRSs must be affiliated to CBSE in order to give a better amount per child studying in these schools.
