KEYWORDS Educational advancement; Scheduled Castes; performance and socio-economic background

ABSTRACT Undisputedly, education holds the master key to socio-economic development and as a matter of fact, it has been regarded as the engine of development. In the context of Indian society in general and the socio-economic milieu of Orissa in particular which is characterised by caste discrimination, skewed income distribution and the attendant social conflict, educational factor is perceived as a prime factor in the direction of social mobility and potent leveller of social inequality. Preparation to placing a monitor to effective measure the ingress of education in a given society, one must reckon with the degree of educational achievements of disadvantaged section and the factor influencing it. The article makes an honest attempt to set forth some of the prime factors influencing the educational achievement of Schedule Caste vis-à-vis General Caste in order to have a comprehensive understanding of the dynamics of the process for the end purpose of policy formulation.