The Panaji government has thought of coming with a plan to offer higher education to the orphans. The government has formulated a scheme ‘Dayanand Bandodkar scheme for higher education for orphans’ to provide assistance to them to pursue further studies, including technical education, from the academic year 2012-13.
The higher education department will operate the scheme, which has been accorded approval by the state government.
“The basic purpose of formulating the scheme for higher education is to support the educational needs of the children who have lost both parents and are deprived of higher education for want of financial resources,” a source said.
Orphans can avail of the scheme to pursue undergraduate courses up to post graduation in general and also technical education.
The beneficiaries will be exempted from payment of fees in the academic institutions, in which they enroll for higher education, as the government will take care of the waiver of the fees.
As per the terms of eligibility for the waiver of fees, the students should be born in Goa or residents of the state at least for last 15 years.
The students who are enrolled for first year of their degree/post graduate courses are entitled to the benefits under the scheme. The exemption of fees covers tuition fees, library fees, laboratory fees and development fees, and also other charges such as lodging and/ boarding, food (hostel charges) or transport.
