The literacy rate of Scheduled Tribe was 57.22% in 1991 against the general literacy rate of 89.90%. Among the major States of India, Kerala has the highest literacy rate for Scheduled Tribe Population. Tribal literacy rate is high in the districts - Kottayam, Ernakulam, Alappuzha, Thiruvananthapuram and Pathanamthitta around more than 70% where as in Palakkad and Malappuram it is relatively low. However the tempo has to be sustained so as to scale up the literacy of tribes further by ensuring that all children in the age group of 6 to 11 years are enrolled in school. The over all literacy rate of the PTGs was only 26.10%.

   Earlier, the Welfare activities in the State for tribals mostly concentrated on educational programmes. Economic development of these communities leading to the creation of substantial assets and ownership of instruments of production through income instruments of production through income generally training programmes received attention only from the sixth Five year plan period. Compared to the general educational level the status of tribal education is far below. The main reason for the low level of education among tribes is the peculiar nature of their habitations.

   The Social and Economic conditions prevailing in the tribal settlements are not conducive for better education. Lack of sufficient educational institutions in tribal areas, poverty, inability to catch the children from pre-primary level, lack of nutritional and health care programmes etc are curtile the effective educational development among Scheduled Tribes. More over the parents of the tribal children are being generally illiterate about the education and insist their children attend classes regularly.

   In order to improve education among Scheduled Tribes, the primary efforts should be on eradication of poverty. The parents of the tribal children have to be provided with regular employment for earning income to meet their day to day requirements, which will help to send their children to school. Scheduled Tribe students have to be provided with boarding and lodging. Opening of more crèches/Balawadies/ Nursery Schools, in tribal areas will not only promote early childhood education, but also lesson the burden of elder children in looking after the younger as and when the parents go for work. Lack of teachers in remote areas, general failure of tuition schemes, lack of skill development etc are certain priority issues in the field of tribal education. A study made by the ST development of department revealed that nearly 10% of the tribal habitats are very remote and lack even primary school facility with in a radius of 2 Kms. In fact the position has improved to some extent during the past 9 years time. However the school facilities in primitive tribal areas are poor; 71.95% of the PTG's are lacking L.P.School facilities with in 1 Km area.

   Major portion of the Non-Plan outlay of ST Development Dept is for educational development activities including scholarship, boarding and lodging charges, incentive to parents etc. During 2001-02 Rs………….. lakh was budgeted for this purposes under Non-Plan. The Plan provision etc ST Development Dept for education programme during 2001-02 was Rs. ------------ lakh.

   The Scheduled Tribes Development Dept gives prime importance to the education of the STs. Accordingly the department is granting educational concessions and other kinds of assistance to the STs from pre-primary stage to post graduate level. There are nearly 65000 pre-metric students and 3300 post metric students [tribal] in the State. Apart from exempting them from all kinds of fees, they are given lumpsum grant meant for purchase of books, stationary, dress and monthly stipend of varying rates depending on the course of study. In order to ensure proper and regular attendance of tribal children in primary schools, parents of children are granted incentive @ Rs. 10/- per month per student.

   For providing quality education to ST students 17 Model Residential schools/Ashram Schools are started and functioning in smooth from 1990-91 onwards. The ongoing efforts adopted by the State for the improvement of MRS/Ashram schools have helped for overcoming the natural transition and environment impact the ST children usually face in the primary secondary and higher secondary levels. This would pave the way for ST students to catch up with the higher levels of education. During 2002-03, a new MRS.CBSE Syllabus has started at Njaraneeli, Nedumangad in Thiruvananthapuram District and for this purpose Govt of India has sanctioned an amount of Rs. 72.95 lakhs. The statement of Model Residential Schools is given in Appendix.

   For providing pre-primary education to tribal students, 58 kindergartens are functioning under the ST. Dev.Dept . The department also runs 26 Industrial Training Centres for imparting job oriented training programmes. With a view to provide Residential Education to tribal students in remote areas, the ST Dev. Dept is running 104 pre-matric hostels in the state. There are 38 single teacher schools and --- multi learning centres for providing primary education to tribal students living in very remote areas. Of these, 29 single teachers schools are in Idukky district.

   The GIRIVIKAS project of Nehru Yuvak Kendra being implemented in Palakkad District from 1993-94 for the failed ST students to re-appear the SSLC/PDC examinations and computer education. This type of Project is started by NYK in Kozhikode district during 2001-02.

   In the educational Institutions, 5% of the seats are reserved for Scheduled Tribes. But the target has not been achieved particularly in the field of higher education. There were only 172 students in the Engineering Colleges, Poly Techniques and other technical Institutions during 2000-2001.

   In the 10th plan, the tribal educational programmes would aim at primary and secondary educational facilities for all eligible ST students especially those living in remote areas [ main objective is improvement enrolment rates and arresting of drop out rates] improved facilities for high quality education and research for talented ST students like MRS; centres of Excellence etc., strengthening of pre-primary education with adequate nutritional care, merit upgradation programmes for equipping the ST students for appearing various entrance examinations and civil services examinations; more emphasis on technical education including Information Technology, restructuring of the present tuition programmes for failed as well as regular ST students, frequent rate revision of educational concessions related to the fast by changing price situation. A thorough rejuvenation of tribal hostels are proposed to be done during 10th Plan by improving the Academic Qualification of wardens and cooks. During the 10th plan high priority for the completion of pre-metric hostels.