Crores of rupees spent on teaching tribal students in English; yet students deprived of basic facilities !

CAG report exposes mismanagement in the Tribal Development Department

Mr Pritam Nachankar, Special Correspondent, Dainik Sanatan Prabhat, Mumbai

Mumbai, 15 July (News) – The Maharashtra Government is implementing the ‘Reputed English-medium Residential Schools’ scheme to provide tribal students with quality education in reputed English-medium schools. During the six-year period from 2018-19 to 2023-24, more than ₹1,398 crore was spent on the scheme. However, the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has revealed that students were not provided with essential educational materials, ineligible schools and teachers were selected, and students’ admissions were delayed. This has raised serious questions about where such a huge amount of money spent on the scheme actually went.

The report was presented in the Monsoon Session of the State Legislature on 10 July. Expenditure under the scheme amounted to ₹297.34 crore in 2018-19, ₹241.41 crore in 2019-20, ₹85.32 crore in 2020-21, ₹149.99 crore in 2021-22, ₹324.58 crore in 2022-23 and ₹299.98 crore in 2023-24. The scheme was implemented in 30 tribal-dominated regions of the State.

Admission target fixed without conducting any study !

Before 2015, the annual target for admitting new students under the scheme was 2,500. From 2015-16 onwards, the annual target was increased to 25,000. In reality, the target was only 2,773 students in 2018-19 and 4,466 in 2019-20. No fresh admissions were made in 2020-21 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Admissions stood at 2,731 in 2021-22 and 2,050 in 2022-23. When the annual average of new admissions was only about 3,000 to 4,000 students, on what basis was the target of 25,000 admissions fixed ? This clearly indicates that no proper study was conducted before fixing the admission target.

No teachers educated in English !

The scheme was introduced to provide students with education in English. However, some of the selected schools did not even have teachers who had studied through the English medium, yet those schools were declared eligible. It was mandatory for schools to assess the English proficiency of the teachers before appointing them. However, no such tests were conducted between 2018-19 and 2022-23.

The scheme was intended only for residential schools. However, non-residential schools were also included, and between 2018 and 2023, grants amounting to ₹24.99 crore were provided to nine such schools. The report states that this compromised the transparency of the scheme.

Depending on the category of the school, grants of ₹50,000 per student per year were provided to schools for school bags, shoes, stationery, uniforms and other educational materials. Shockingly, some schools did not provide these materials to the students at all. Such schools were subsequently penalised. Overall, this is an example of how a well-intentioned government scheme can be undermined by corruption and the apathy of government officials.