Government fails to find tribal students to award scholarship for higher studies

NEW DELHI: It’s a problem of plenty that the government is scratching its head over. The Ministry of Tribal Affairs has been struggling to award scholarships for higher studies to tribal students.

The ministry has not been able to find enough beneficiaries for two major schemes – National Overseas Scholarship Scheme for ST students and Scheme of Top Class Education for ST students.

The National Overseas scholarship provides financial assistance to students selected for PG, doctorate and post-doctoral research programmes abroad.

Even after the ministry reset the target for the scholarships to 15 students from 20 previously, including three from particularly vulnerable tribal groups, there just weren’t enough suitable candidates getting opportunities to study abroad.

Ministry data show it has not only missed the target of awarding 15 scholarships in each of the past three financial years, the number of meritorious students given grants has also declined. In 2012-13, the ministry awarded 12 scholarships and this number fell to nine in 2013-14.