New Delhi: The government has decided to proffer 40 per cent reservation for girls at 100 Navodaya-type schools and five higher education institutes it plans to set up for minority community students, Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi has said.   

The Minister of State for Minority Affairs said the government is mulling to open the 100 Navodaya-type schools in minority concentrated areas of the country. "We want to empower the communities with dignity and, therefore, are focusing on the education sector. We will give 40 per cent reservation to girls from the communities in the schools and also in the institutes. This is to ensure they complete their education," he told PTI.   

A high-level panel formed by the Maulana Azad Education Foundation (MAEF), a government-funded agency, had in its report recently recommended a three-tier model to tackle educational backwardness among minorities, particularly the Muslims.   

The suggested model includes creating infrastructure to impart education at primary, secondary and tertiary levels by opening 211 schools, 25 community colleges and the five institutes. The panel had said the proposed schools could work on the patterns of Kendriya Vidayala or Navodaya Vidyalaya.   

Under the Navodaya Vidyalaya system, rural students are selected and provided with quality education, which is among the best the country. They are also provided with food and lodging facilities. Naqvi said the schools will "most probably" be commissioned next year in buildings developed under the multi-sectoral development programme (MsDP).   

MsDP is a programme for developing infrastructure and creating assets in areas dominated by minority community with an aim to take tangible and intangible benefits to them. The minister said that the governments in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh have expressed interest in setting up the institutes for higher education.   

There are six notified minority communities in the country: Muslims, Buddhists, Christians, Sikhs, Parsis and Jains. PTI