Grant for pre-matric education to be hiked

KOCHI: Minister for Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes A P Anilkumar on Monday said the lumpsum grant given for Scheduled Caste students for pre-matric education would be increased immediately.  Inaugurating ‘Vision 2013’, a programme envisaged to impart coaching to Scheduled Caste Plus Two students for entrance examinations to professional courses, he said apart from increasing the lumpsum amount, the government would bring in many  programmes for the socio-economic uplift of the SC students. The students could go to any entrance coaching centre and the government would bear all the expenses, Anil Kumar said and added no SC student should be out of the race owing to lack of money.    In the age of competition, there was a need for imparting proper training for the SC students for getting professional jobs, he said.‘Vision 2013’ was drawn up under the 100-day programme of the government for the welfare of Scheduled Castes.   ‘Vijnanavadi’ is another project under the 100-day programme, which is aimed at providing Scheduled Caste students and job aspirants access to modern facilities.  It was inaugurated last week.  Another project is the distribution of cycles to about 55,000 students studying in Class eight.   The MLAs from Ernakulam district Haibi Eden,  V D Satheeshan, Dominic Presentation and V P Sajeendran were also  present.