Gujarat State Tribal Education Society

Gujarat State Tribal Development Residential Educational Institutions Society (GSTDREIS) or EMRS Society came into existence on 3rd January' 2000 as an autonomous society by Tribal Development Department, Government of Gujarat for establishing, maintaining, controlling and managing good quality schools for talented and meritorious ST students. The society is currently running three types of schools called Eklavya Model Residential School (EMRS), Eklavya Girls' Residential School (EGRS) and Model Schools (MS) across the state. Presently altogether 65 schools are being managed by the society out of which 18 are EMRS, 35 are EGRS and 12 are MS. About 15 more schools are under pipeline for this academic year.

The Eklavya Model Residential Schools were initiated in India by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India for providing free high quality education to meritorious tribal children. The Eklavya Schools Project was launched in Gujarat in 1999-2000. Based on Navodaya Model, the funding pattern for EMRS (model-II) is fixed at Rs. 42,000/- per student per annum as recurring grant. While Rs. 10 lakh per school per five years and Rs. 12 Cr. Per school are non-recurring and capital grant respectively. All these grants are provided by GoI.

Eklavya Girls Residential schools (EGRS) are the residential schools exclusive for tribal girls and are running across ten districts of Gujarat under the scheme of strengthening education among ST girls of Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Govt. of India. Initially in Year 2008, MoTA, GoI has sanctioned 24 Girls residential schools for Gujarat state & further 12 more GRS were sanctioned in Year 2009. Currently there are altogether 35 Eklavya Girls' Residential Schools run by the Society and are functional from Std. VIII to X. These schools aim to bridge the gap in literacy levels between the general female population and tribal women, through facilitating 100% enrolment of tribal girls and reduce drop out ratio in low literacy blocks of Gujarat state. 

The Ministry of Human Resource Development in the year 2010-11 has sanctioned 12 Model Schools to be established in Scheduled Area to enhance the quality of secondary education. These schools, unlike EMRS, are not residential in nature. However, they are based on Kendriya Vidhyalaya pattern and are similar to the EMRS model in terms of their quality, management and facilities. Under the Model School scheme, the recurring grant of Rs. 17,857/- per student per annum and Rs. 3.02 crore as non-recurring & capital cost are provided by ministry of HRD, GoI and State Govt. on 75:25 bases.