Educational Travel Promotion Scheme

What is the Educational Travel Promotion Scheme?

Educational Travel Promotion Scheme is a Gujarat Education Department scheme that funds educational tours within the state for students of government secondary and higher secondary schools. The scheme allocates Rs 500 per student per year to the school, which uses the money to organise the tour.

The purpose stated for the scheme is developmental rather than academic in the narrow sense: it aims to build personality development, powers of observation and intellectual curiosity among students. Those are things a classroom does badly and a well-run field visit does well. A heritage site, a science centre, a dairy, a dam, a forest or a port teaches by being seen.

The single most important thing to understand about this scheme is that it is a school-level grant, not an individual entitlement. A student cannot apply for Rs 500. The school decides the tour, passes a resolution, conducts it and claims against the number of students who went.

Scheme parameters:

• Grant rate: Rs 500 per student per year.
• Covered institutions: government secondary and higher secondary schools, including RMSA schools and Model schools.
• Geography: tours within Gujarat only.
• Application route: offline, through the school.

Who benefits from the Educational Travel Promotion Scheme?

Covered:

• Students enrolled in a government secondary or higher secondary school in Gujarat, who travel on a tour the school organises.
• Students of RMSA schools and Model or Model Day schools, which the scheme explicitly includes.
• The school itself, which receives and spends the allocation.

Not eligible / cannot apply:

• Individual students and parents cannot apply. There is no personal application form and no payment to a student's bank account under this scheme.
• Private unaided schools outside the covered categories are not the intended recipients; the scheme is framed around government secondary and higher secondary schools.
• Tours outside Gujarat cannot be funded from this allocation, which is for travel within the state.
• A tour that was never conducted cannot be claimed for. The photographic record and student list are the check against that.

How much money does a school get?

The arithmetic is simple and worth doing before planning: a class of 60 students generates an allocation of Rs 30,000; 100 students, Rs 50,000. That budget has to cover transport, entry fees where applicable, and the cost of the day. Schools generally plan destinations within a few hours' travel so that the tour can be completed within the allocation and within a single day.

How to apply for the Educational Travel Promotion Scheme

The application is made by the school, offline, and follows this sequence:

1. Plan the tour: pick a destination within Gujarat, decide the date, and identify which classes and how many students will travel.
2. Pass a school resolution recording the tour plan, the destination and the students covered. This resolution is a mandatory document in the claim.
3. Complete the prescribed checklist for the scheme, signed by the head of the school.
4. Conduct the tour and take high-resolution photographs documenting it. The photographs are the evidence that the tour happened as approved.
5. Compile the claim, checklist, school resolution, list of participating students and photographs.
6. Submit the claim to the education administration through the school's usual reporting channel, and retain a copy with the school records.

Because the route is offline and the school is the applicant, a parent who wants their child included should speak to the head of the school rather than looking for a portal.

Why do claims run into trouble?

• No school resolution on record for the tour, which leaves the claim without its basic authorisation document.
• Photographs missing or unusable, so utilisation cannot be verified.
• Student list inconsistent with the number claimed at Rs 500 per student.
• Tour conducted outside Gujarat, which falls outside the scheme.
• Incomplete checklist, returned to the school and delaying the claim.

What this scheme is, and what it is not

Educational Travel Promotion Scheme is a small, specific grant. It is not a scholarship, not a fee waiver, and not a travel concession for individual students — Gujarat runs a separate S.T. bus pass concession for daily student travel, and separate scholarships for fees. Confusing the three is the most common mistake readers make when they encounter the scheme name.

Published official material on this scheme is limited to the rate, the covered schools and the offline claim route. Where a school needs the current year's instructions: whether the rate has been revised, and the exact form of the checklist, the Education Department at education.gujarat.gov.in and the district education office are the sources to use, rather than assuming last year's circular still applies.

Help and information

• Education Department, Gujarat: education.gujarat.gov.in, which publishes departmental schemes, officer contact details and the addresses of the Commissionerate of Schools and the Director of Primary Education.
• District Education Officer, for the current year's checklist, submission channel and claim timelines.
• The head of your school, who is the applicant under this scheme and holds the resolution and the claim papers.