New Delhi: Tribal students enrolled at the Union government’s Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRSs) suffered “irreversibly” during the Covid-19 pandemic, as resources for online learning were not made available to them in time, noted a parliamentary committee report released Monday.
Started in 1997-98, EMRSs aim to impart quality education to children from scheduled tribes (ST), in remote areas of the country.
The “Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment”, stated in its report, “The Committee is surprised to note that the provision for Smart Classes and Atal Tinkering Labs (computer laboratories where students learn by experimenting) in EMRSs and the procurement of mobile tablets and educational kits for students have been delayed so much that the very objective to provide online education to EMRS schools during Covid-19 pandemic could not materialise.”
It added: “The Committee feels that this delay has made students suffer irreversibly as they require these facilities well in time to continue their studies in distance mode.”
The committee’s ‘Action Taken by the Government’ report on review of the functioning of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs’ Eklavya Model Residential Schools also claimed that “The Committee is unable to understand reasons for continued delay in having these facilities in schools. The Committee feels that the Ministry (Ministry of Tribal Affairs) must realise that students cannot be deprived of the right to education due to the non-serious approach of the persons responsible to execute the work.”
It also said that the “casual approach” of the ministry needed to be fixed.
“While expressing their concern for educational empowerment of the tribal students, the Committee feels that any further delay in providing these facilities in all the EMRS would deprive students from latest technology in education which has become very essential in the current scenario,” the report added.
While the government did not respond to the learning loss issues, it clarified that Atal Tinkering Labs have now been set up in 18 schools across eight states. ThePrint has also reached the secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, for response. This copy will be updated once a response is received.
The parliamentary committee report also pointed at the failure by the ministry to set up as many EMRSs, as the report claimed had been targeted by 2022.
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‘2022 target nowhere near completion’
According to the report, the ministry has failed to set up the number of EMRSs it was supposed to have by 2022, and the deadline has now been extended to 2025.
“The original target, which aimed that 452 new EMRSs, including 12 Eklavya Model Day Boarding Schools (where density of ST population is higher) 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,” read the report.
The government response, included in the report, stated: “The Ministry has not fixed the target of setting up all 452 schools by 2022.”
“In the Cabinet Note 2022, funds for setting up 452 new schools were provided and construction timeline was fixed in a phased manner. Accordingly, 396 out of 452 EMRSs have been sanctioned as on date,” the government reply read.
It added: “Some states have pleaded inability to provide land in the designated blocks due to the area being forest, hilly terrain or suitable land not being available. In view of this, the Ministry (of tribal affairs) has asked States to identify alternate land in neighbouring blocks /districts which have a majority tribal population.”
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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