Correct Answer :   Scheduled Caste (SC)

The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has launched the 'Scheme for Residental Education for Students in High School in Targeted Areas' (SHRESHTA). It has been introduced to advance education and uplift the socio-economic status of scheduled castes.

An official statement from the ministry states that the main objectives of this effort are to increase the reach of government development programmes and close service gaps in regions of the education sector that are mostly populated by SC populations.

SHRESHTA Scheme to Provide High-Quality Education to SC Students

According to the press release, SHRESHTA’s goal is to create an environment that will be beneficial for the socioeconomic advancement and overall development of SC students, providing a better future for them. Further, it aims to promote cooperation between residential high schools that provide high-quality education and grant-in-aid institutions run by non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

The implementation of the system is divided into two different modes. The best private residential schools that are associated with the CBSE and State Board are the SHRESHTA institutions.

In accordance with this approach, a predetermined number of exceptional SC students will be chosen each year from among the States and Union Territories (UTs) via the National Entrance Test for SHRESHTA (NETS), administered by the National Testing Agency (NTA).

The children will subsequently be accepted to the top private residential schools connected to the CBSE/State Boards to complete their ninth through twelfth-grade education.

A selection committee chooses these schools based on their exceptional performance; schools boasting more than 75% pass rates for classes 10 and 12 over the previous three years are chosen for admittance.


* SHRESHTA Scheme: How Will Students be Selected?

Each year, the National Testing Agency (NTA) will select approximately 3,000 SC children whose parents' combined annual income is under 2.5 lakh rupees. These students will have a variety of school options based on their merit.

 It's noteworthy because the programme pays for all fees for each student, including mess and tuition for the school. The specific fees that are acceptable for each class are: 9th: ₹ 1,00,000; 10th: ₹ 1,10,000; 11th: ₹ 1,25,000; 12th: ₹ 1,35,000, as detailed in the press release.


* Who implemented the SHRESHTA scheme?

The "SHRESHTA" Scheme was introduced by Virendra Kumar to provide high school students in the targeted areas with residential education.