Low literacy: Girls’ high schools for each block

Friday November 30 2007 09:33 IST EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

BHUBANESWAR: Considering the low literacy rate among tribal women, the State Government has decided to open one residential girl’s High School in each block of the scheduled areas.

The State has 54 blocks in scheduled areas and an equal number of residential girl’s high schools will be opened within a period of three years. In the first phase, 22 residential schools will be opened in the districts of Koraput, Malkangiri, Nabarangpur, Rayagada and Gajapati in 2008-09.Chief Secretary Ajit Kumar Tripathy reviewed the progress made for implementation of the programme at a meeting here on Thursday.

The remaining 32 such residential high schools will be opened in Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Sambalpur, Sundargarh and Kandhamal in 2009-10 and 2010-11 respectively. Of the 22 residential high schools to be opened in the first phase, the Government has accorded approval for 20 schools and this has been communicated to collectors of the five district. The meeting was informed that steps are being taken for infrastructure development.

For the remaining two schools, the Government is yet to receive clear-cut proposal from the Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes Development Department.

The Government has also approved the proposals of Sundargarh, Kandhamal and Mayurbhanj districts to be implemented in the second and third phases.

The Chief Secretary was also informed that the ST and SC Development Department has already made 1003 girl’s hostels operational by October and nearly one lakh girl students have been enrolled in these hostels.

Construction of 833 hostel buildings have been completed while the remaining buildings are at different stages of construction.

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