Prayas scheme to be extended to 4 more districts

Updated on: Saturday, December 29, 2012

Buoyed by the success of its education initiative 'Prayas', which helps tribal students from Naxal-hit areas to get into engineering colleges, the
Chhattisgarh Government has decided to extend the scheme to four more districts.
 
Tribal Welfare Minister Kedar Kashyap, in a missive to Collectors of Sarguja, Raigarh, Korba and Batsar, has asked them to undertake necessary preparation to launch the project in their respective districts at the earliest, a Government official said today.
 
The Tribal Welfare Department had established Prayas, a residential school-cum-coaching institute for boys, in Raipur in 2010. The department had picked students from Naxal-hit districts, who had passed Class 10 that year.
 
As many as 249 students of the first batch have passed Class 12 examination and many of them went on to clear entrances like PET (Pre-Engineering Test) and All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) and IIT this year.
 
Besides providing free education, the department gives funds for food, uniforms and other needs of the students. Looking at the success of Prayas, where at present students get education since Class 11, it has now been decided that meritorious students of Std VIII will be selected from the schools in remote areas and enrolled for 9th Class in the schools of district headquarters, the official said.
 
The Government plans to provide coaching facilities to the students since Class 9 so that they can score good marks in entrance tests after Std XII, he said. The new residential schools will be developed on the public-private partnership basis, the official said.
 
The Collectors have bee directed to coordinate with companies like NMDC, South Eastern Coalfield Ltd (SECL), Balco and Jindal and take up initiative under their CSR activities for the implementation of the project, he added.

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