On the last day of their visit today, the Commission held discussions with Chief Secretary Sri Gokul Chandra Pati, Development Commissioner Sri U.N. Behera, Secretary Scheduled Tribe & Scheduled Caste Development Sri Surendra Kumar and other senior officers of the State in secretariat conference hall today morning.
The issues relating to quality of education in tribal schools, security of the children, health care of the inmates, training to teachers for qualitative teaching, regular visit of the officers to tribal schools, exposure visits for the students in tribal hostels, regulations of the interstate movements of the laborers etc were discussed in the meeting. The Commission suggested infusing attitudinal and behavioral changes in the tribal students so as to enable them to participate in social mainstream.
Sri S. Shyam Agrawal, Secretary of the Commission appreciated the efforts of the Govt for establishing 11 to 15 Ashrama Schools and hostels in many blocks and suggested that one such school can be developed as model school in each block which will work as reference point for others to follow and map up.
The Commission visited 5 districts namely Rayagada, Koraput, Kandhamala, Sundargarh and Keonjhar. The members of the Commission also interacted with students and teachers in some schools including Umree School in Jeypore, Gupteswar School in Baipariguda, Lingagarh School in G.Udayagiri, Kanjiapani girls hostel in Keonjhar and Kathapal school in Anandapur. Sri Dwaraka Karol, Regional Director NCST and Sri R.K.Dubey Asst. Director NCST were other members of the Commission who visited Odisha. The Principal Secretaries, Secretaries and Senior Officers of State Govt from various departments joined the meeting and participated in the discussion.