Odisha government to build 3 mega educational institutions for tribal children

BHUBANESWAR: In a bid to increase the accessibility to education in tribal communities, the Government of Odisha is planning to construct three mega educational complexes, where both academic and sporting skills of the students will be harnessed. Apart from being located in tribal-dominated areas like Keonjhar, Sundargarh and Mayurbhanj, the institutions will also exclusively enrol tribal children.
Each complex will have the capacity to accommodate a minimum of 3,000 children. The initiative is quickly gaining popularity due to its uniqueness. According to Ranjana Chopra, Principal Secretary, SC and ST Development, Minorities and Backward Classes Welfare Department, Government of Odisha, the land has already been identified for the three mega institutions and the government is currently working on preparing the detailed project report.

Ranjana further went on to elaborate that the institutions will have state-of-the-art facilities to develop academic and sporting skills of the tribal students studying there in classes 1 to 12. Moreover, dedicated skill development centres will also be an integral part of the initiative. Funding for the initiative will be sourced from the Odisha Mineral Bearing Areas Development Corporation (OMBADC), which was

formed for focused development of mineral-rich districts. Incidentally, most mineral rick districts are tribal-dominated.