CLEARED SKHERgraphics in p/common/nsktribalNashik: English medium education is no longer a distant dream for tribal students.More than 24,000 tribal students will get admissions into private and aided English medium schools, residential schools, boarding schools and military schools in Maharashtra this year.The number of applications and admissions has been on the rise since 2015, after the state government increased the number of students it will support. The state government funds the education of tribal students studying in these private schools through a decade-old scheme.“The government started the ‘Namankit Shala Pravesh’ scheme some ten years ago with the intention of offering tribal students quality education in English medium schools. As part of this, the tribal students are admitted to private English schools and the government bears all the expenses up to Rs 75,000 per child a year. This amount is directly transferred to the schools,” said Deepak Sakhare, project in-charge of the scheme.The Rs 75,000 are spent on all the facilities, including uniforms, accommodation, food and books. Many of these schools follow the Central Board of Secondary Education or Indian Certificate of Secondary Education boards pattern.Since the launch of the scheme in 2008-09, the department has been admitting nearly 3,000 tribal students annually to English-medium private residential schools. For the last two years (2015 to 2017), the government increased the number of seats to about 20,000 per year. This has taken the total number of students studying in such schools to a whooping 45,000 in 2017-18 from just 6,000 students in 2014-15.“The entire application process has been made online and we are receiving good response from schools as well. According to our estimate, the number of the tribal students taking admission in well-known English medium schools will cross 22,000 in 2018-19,” Sakhare added.According to the officials, the number of applications from tribal students is also increasing. “Since the government increased the number of beneficiaries, we can entertain more applications. We need support from the tribal organizations to ensure proper distribution of seats,” said Sakhare.Ganesh Gavali, district president of the Adivasi Yuva Vikas Parishad, a student front, claimed that tribal students are achieving good academic success in the English medium schools. “Many private schools have better facilities than the government ashramshalas. Our students are doing well in these schools. In some schools, such as Bhonsala Military School, tribal students have secured top scores,” he said.

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