Policy Update
Riya Singh
Background
The Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS) program was introduced in 1997-98 to fill the longstanding education divide between the Scheduled Tribe (ST) population and the rest of the Indian population. The scheme was conceived under Article 275(1) of the Constitution and was meant to offer free, quality and residential education to ST children in Class VI to XII in geographically remote and “tribal dominated” locations. The essence of the work is not only the academic study but also the overall development on the basis of sports, training skills, preservation of culture and modern pedagogical aids.
In 2018, the scheme was given a significant policy boost with the Government of India declaring the goal of having one EMRS in each block with over 50 percent ST population and with over 20,000 tribal persons. That resulted in a new goal of 728 schools by 2026 and a replacement of state-based grants with a centrally sponsored institutional structure with the Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA). In order to operationalise the programme, the National Education Society for Tribal Students (NESTS) was established in 2019 as an independent body to plan, administer and oversee EMRS in states and UTs.
Functioning
All EMRS will be a full residential school with a sanctioned population of 480 students, and both boys and girls will be equal in number. The admissions are conducted under a clear process of selection that is under the control of NESTS based on the Right to Education Act, 2009. Non-ST children can be assigned up to 10 percent of the seats, with preference to orphans, children with insurgency-related problems, and children of the staff members of EMRS. The schools are based on a CBSE-based curriculum and make use of ICT-based learning, smart classrooms, and coaching facilities for competitive examinations like IIT-JEE and NEET.
The scheme requires at least 15 acres of land per school, and the infrastructure includes academic blocks, laboratories, the boy and girl hostel, staff residence, recreation and sports facilities. The financial design also comprises a capital grant of ₹37.8 crore per school in plain regions and ₹48 crore in hilly and North-Eastern, Left-Wing Extremism (LWE) affected regions plus a recurring expenditure norm of ₹1.09 lakh per student per year, updated in 2019. There is also a one-time grant of ₹20 lakh per school once in every five years to be used for furniture, equipment in the kitchen and non-recurring requirements.
The three levels of the governance structure are interconnected. On a national level, NESTS develops policies, establishes standards and oversees the progress. EMRS Societies at the state level direct the operations of schools, staffing, as well as budgeting according to the guidelines of the Ministry. On the district level, a District Level Committee under the leadership of the District Collector monitors the implementation where, tribal communities, educationists and local authorities are represented.
Performance
The programme has grown considerably in the past three years. By July 2024, 708 schools nationwide have been sanctioned, 405 of which are operational, which is an almost 60 percent operationalisation rate (PIB, 2024). It is a significant increase compared to previous years: in 2018, there were approximately 100 schools in operation, which increased to 250 in 2021 and reached 400 in 2024. NESTS has also been used to recruit more than 8,000 teaching and non-teaching personnel to deliver in the classroom and manage the residence.
Besides academic growth, the Ministry has brought about infrastructure and pedagogic innovations. EMRS campuses are also building fifteen specialised Centres of Excellence in Sports (CoE) to encourage athletic ability among tribal children. The schools have also embarked on planting Poshan Vatikas or nutrition gardens to revive the food cultures of the tribes and also to encourage food security at the school level. Regarding student success, approximately 600 EMRS students reached IIT-JEE and NEET in 2024, and this shows the increasing academic competitiveness of first-generation tribal students.
Impact
EMRS has become the biggest residential tribal education programme in the world regarding size, geographical spread, and specific investment. The initiative has helped to achieve several social and developmental benefits: a decrease in tribal student dropout rates, an increase in access to STEM education, and an increase in mobility of tribal youth to higher education and formal sector jobs. The scheme has been critical in ensuring that the tribal art, language and indigenous knowledge systems are preserved by way of cultural programming in schools.
The programme has greatly enhanced the equity of tribal group school education among Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs), and has also created new livelihoods in tribal districts by hiring teachers, staffing administration, and school-based supply chains. Also crucial, is the great emphasis on sports, skill formation, digital literacy, and personality development, which historically stood as areas of systemic exclusion of tribal students.
Emerging Issues
- Delays in school construction and handover of land in various states.
- Chronic shortages of teachers and high turnover in the isolated districts.
- Inequality in terms of state-wise advancement, as certain states are even below national standards.
- Incomplete infrastructure preparedness in some functional schools, particularly labs and sports areas.
- Linguistic and curriculum differences among tribal students in lower classes.
- Electricity and internet connectivity are unstable and hence contribute to digital inequalities in learning.
- Lack of mechanisms of weak grievance redressal and parent-community participation.
- Poor real-time surveillance because of loopholes in the MIS information updating and review systems.
Way Forward
EMRS needs a multi-layered approach to achieve its 2026 goal and its more comprehensive vision of educational justice for the tribal communities. The timelines on construction projects should be expedited by having centralised technical support and single procurement systems. Hardship allowances, bonded scholarship programmes and localised cadre policies should be used in motivating teacher recruitment in tribal areas. It is important to have curriculum customization to tribal languages and settings, especially in the initial stages of learning. It is also imperative to strengthen the monitoring systems, increase the independence of school management societies and scale post-Class XII support using scholarships and career counselling.
In addition, EMRS is to be embedded into the National Digital Education Architecture (NDEAR) in order to make digital learning accessible to all. When executed appropriately, the programme can turn into one of the most impactful social inclusion policies in India and can directly impact SDG 4 (Quality Education) and SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities).
Conclusion
The EMRS scheme is a key policy intervention in the long-term attempt by the Indian government, to eliminate structural marginalisation of the tribal communities by educating them. Its structure (residential schooling, cultural inclusion, skill-building, and sports-based development) represents a break with welfare-based strategies and the capacity-building models. Although the growth over the last three years is indicative of a good policy intent, the dissimilar rate of its execution, teacher shortage, and infrastructural gaps emphasize the gap that still needs to be bridged.
References
Ministry of Tribal Affairs. (2024). EMRS Dashboard and Progress Report.
https://nests.tribal.gov.in/backend/web/dashboard/index
Press Information Bureau. (2024). Status of EMRS Implementation.
https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2036834
The Hindu. (2024). 600 EMRS Students Crack IIT-JEE, NEET Exams.
Data.gov.in. (2024). District-wise EMRS Data.
Tribal Affairs Department. (2023). NESTS Annual Report.
https://nests.tribal.gov.in/WriteReadData/RTF1984/1755767035.pdf
About the Contributor:
Riya Singh is a Research Intern at IMPRI. She is a student of the Master of Arts in Public Policy and Governance at the Tata Institute of Social Science, Hyderabad and holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Delhi. Her research interests lie in government policy and data analysis.
Acknowledgement: The author sincerely thanks the IMPRI team for their valuable support.
Disclaimer:All views expressed in the article belong solely to the author and not necessarily to the organisation.
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