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On Wednesday, Union Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda said the central government is ready to hire 38,800 teachers and support staff for Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS) in the following three years. The EMRS initiative for constructing model residential schools for tribal students across India began in 1997-1998.

In a press conference, Munda said the digit of such schools operating in the nation has grown from 119 in 2013-2014 to 401 in 2023-2024 under the Narendra Modi government. The number of students registered in these schools has raised from 34365 in 2023-2014 to 1,13,275 in 2023-2024.

As part of a new initiative/scheme established in 2019, the government formulated Eklavya Model Residential Schools in every block with 50% or more scheduled tribe population and at least 20,000 tribal individuals according to the 2011 census.

Munda said the ministry is concentrating on setting up EMRSs in 740 recognized blocks across the nation by 2025-2026. In the next three years, the government will recruit 38,800 teachers and support staff in order to impart quality education to about 3.5 lakh tribal students in these schools. The minister said 693 schools have been sanctioned so far, and digital classes are being set up by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in 175 such schools.