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Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has decided to set up Open Schools in all 314 blocks in the state this year.
This was revealed by School and Mass Education minister Debi Prasad Mishra after a review meeting on the yearly performance of the department presided over by chief minister Naveen Patnaik at the State Secretariat here today.
"Older people, who have left their studies midway, will get the opportunity to study in these Open Schools up to Class X and clear the High School Certificate (HSC) examinations," Mishra said.
It was revealed during the review meeting that regular classes have started in 100 Odisha Model Schools in 2016-17 academic session, while efforts are on to set up 100 more such schools in 2017-18 and 114 more in 2018-19 so that all 314 blocks in the state have a Model School each.
Expressing happiness that students and their parents have welcomed the decision of the state government, the chief minister directed the department to make efforts to make these schools a potent medium of quality education.
Emphasis was given on accommodation for teachers and construction of hostels for the students and provision for providing management fund assistance up to Rs 2 lakh to each Model school to meet their additional expenses towards purchase of office stationery and study materials.
To ensure the standard ratio between the students and the teachers, the state government has appointed 9354 Siksha Sahayaks and 3669 teachers on contract till date, the meeting revealed.
Each of the 350 block grant high schools in the state would be provided Rs 10 lakh each while each grant-in-aid Middle English school would get Rs 5 lakh for infrastructure development.
“Besides, keeping the requirement of trained teachers in mind, the meeting decided to increase 1300 seats in B.Ed stream. Apart from this, increasing the number of teachers in 17 colleges and District Institute of Education and Training (DIET) in the state were also discussed at the meeting," the minister said.