The Odisha government has approved a new scheme to arrest dropouts in the state’s tribal areas. Under the scheme, tribal students will receive ₹5,000 per annum in financial assistance as an incentive.

Financial assistance would be given under the “Madho Singh Haath Kharch Yojana,” a first-of-its-kind program that provides monetary incentives to encourage students to stay focused on their studies and not abandon them midway.

“Around 3 lakh tribal students will get the benefit from the scheme. The state government will spend ₹156 crore for this scheme, and budgetary provision has been made to this effect,” said parliamentary affairs minister Mukesh Mahaling informed the Odisha Assembly on Thursday.

Mahalinga said: “The tribal students promoted from Class VIII to Class IX and Class X to Class XI in school will get Rs 5000 per year as an incentive. The scheme will be implemented from this academic year.”

Attending the state-level function on Teacher’s Day, chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi announced that the state will set up model schools in every panchayat. The model school will be named after Odisha’s first education minister Godabarish Mishra. Majhi also launched several programmes, including Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) and Digital Education Empowerment Programme (DEEP), to develop the skills of teachers and students. It also launched career guidelines portals for students. A portal was also launched to regulate the affairs of the state’s private schools.

Higher education minister Suraj Suryabanshi said the state government would implement the national education policy 2020 in Odisha in letter and spirit. School and mass education minister Nityananda Gond also attended the programmes at the state-level function.