Bhubaneswar, May 17: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik today announced a "Green Passage" scheme, under which free higher education will be provided to all orphan students across the state.
The higher education department's proposal today received the approval from the chief minister benefiting around 17,000 orphans living in 272 child care institutions across the state.
All these students can now avail themselves of free education from Plus Two up to post-graduation. Besides free hostel accommodation and food, the beneficiaries will also be exempted of the admission fee, tuition fee and lab fee.
The scheme will be rolled out across all government, private and government-aided colleges and universities of the state. The state government has directed all government, private, government-aided colleges and universities to ensure that the orphan students are not charged any money. The state government will reimburse the students' all expenses to the institutions.
While expenses for Class XII in a government college ranges around Rs 3,000 annually, it goes up to Rs 5,000 for students in government degree colleges. For postgraduate students, apart from books and seminar fees, the students pay Rs 1,000 as lab fee. The hostel's annual fee ranges around Rs 3,000 with Rs 20 per meal. A department official said a database of the orphans studying in higher education institutions would be prepared.
The state government had, in 2013, introduced the laptop scheme under which laptops are distributed to around 15,000 meritorious students on the basis of results of Plus II examination. The other education related schemes introduced by the Naveen Patnaik government for students include the free bicycle scheme (2012) and mathematics scholarship scheme (2014).
Under the free bicycle scheme, cycles are provided to girl students studying in Class X and boys belonging to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe in all 118 scheduled area blocks in government and government-aided schools.
For the scholarship scheme, as many as 4,000 meritorious students from government and government-aided schools in the state from Class VI to XII selected using a talent search examination, will receive a scholarship ranging from Rs 200 to Rs 500 per month. The amount is deposited in the accounts of the students electronically every six months.
"Educating an orphan is difficult as funds are limited. We often try to convince the private school authorities to admit the kids and waive their fees. Some agree, but paying for uniforms and books is difficult. We welcome to government move," said a member of city-based Asha Kiran orphanage.
