Best Available School Scheme (BASS) dodges bright tribal students

Hyderabad: The Scheme for the tribal students who are interested to get best education in reputed private schools has become a distant dream due to the negligence of implementation agencies. According to the tribal communities’ associations, implementation of the scheme is only for namesake.

Hundreds of crores of rupees spent on the scheme every year is going waste due to non selection of bright and serious students, they say. Tribal issues activist A Venkateswara Rao said the results achieved by the students under Best Available School Scheme (BASS) in SSC exams shows the poor implementation of the scheme.

Students who have been sponsored with thousands of rupees every year , are failing in the exams. Best Available School scheme was launched during the combined State era in 2001. According to the scheme government would sponsor bright students of under privileged sections like SCs, STs and others for studying in the reputed private schools. As per the scheme about 20 students would be given seats in the top private schools and the government bears the fee.

Bright children among STs are selected by District Selection Committee under the chairmanship of Collector in non-ITDA districts and project officers in ITDA districts and the selected ST children are admitted in reputed private management schools.

Tribal activists alleged that the selection process is fraught with several lacunae. Though the officials have to select bright and interested students from the tribal communities, the process has become mechanical and not so bright and non interested students are being selected.

The officials have not been supervising the scheme and not following up the teaching in the schools and academic progress of the students. The schools which have taken the students under the scheme are not bothered with the academic progress of the students, the activists alleged.