Union Minister Dr. Virendra Kumar launched the Scheme “SHRESHTA”

04 June 2022
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Union Minister Dr. Virendra Kumar launched the Scheme “SHRESHTA”

Union Minister of social Justice and empowerment Dr. Virendra Kumar has launched the Scheme “SHRESHTA”-Scheme for residential education for students in High school in Targeted Areas. The Scheme for Residential Education for Students in Targeted Areas (SHRESHTA) has been formulated with the objective to provide quality education and opportunities for even the poorest.

Objective of the SHRESHTA Scheme:

• Scheduled Caste students, as per the Constitutional mandate. The students from the Scheduled Caste communities, for long been subjects to inequality, were kept out of quality education and a situation that perpetuates the disadvantages carried forward for generations of lack of adequate education.
• The Governmental efforts to spread educational facilities without discrimination have worked well in achieving near universal access. However, the objective of providing access to quality education that provides a level playing field is still far from reality.
• Accordingly, the Department as a new initiative has introduced the scheme for providing quality education in top class private Residential Schools to the meritorious SC students who cannot afford the fee of such schools.

About the SHRESHTA Scheme:

• Scheme for Residential Education for Students in High Schools in Targeted Areas (SHRESHTA) provides for high quality education for meritorious but poor SC students in CBSE-affiliated reputed residential schools across the country.
• Approximately 3,000 seats are providedeach year for admission in class 9th and 11th and the entire cost of the school fee and residentialcharges are borne by the Department.
• The students, belonging to Scheduled Castes, studying in class 8th and 10th in the current academicyear are eligible for availing the benefits of scheme are selected through a transparent mechanism through a National Entrance Test for SHRESHTA (NETS), which is conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) for admission in class 9th and 11th.
• Students belonging to marginalized income group within the SC community, whose parental annual income is upto Rs.2.5 Lakh are eligible. Successful candidates, after following the e-counselling process, are given admission in the school of their choice anywhere in the Country for their academic persuasion.
• The Department shall bear the total cost of the school fee and hostel charges till completion of their academic upto class 12th. There after the students of the scheme may avail benefits of other schemes of the Department fortheir higher education.