At present, classes are being conducted in schools from 6 am 9 am.
OSCPCR Chairperson Sandhyabati Pradhan wrote a letter to the State School and Mass Education (S&ME) department in this regard.
Pradhan suggested the department to consider an increase in the school hour in the wake of change in the weather condition.
She said extending the time up to at least 10 am will ease both teachers and students.
“On analysis of the daily attendance figure provided by the District Education Officers, it is seen that about 70 per cent students are attending the classes. However, on detailed analysis the figure, it is seen that the attendance in Class-I to Class-V in case of districts like Malkangiri, Boudh, Gajapati, Sambalpur, Nuapada is less than the state average,” S&ME Principal Secretary Bishnupada Sethi stated in a letter to Collectors.
“Similarly, in case of attendance for Class-VI to Class-VIII, the performance of districts like Malkanagiri, Boudh, Sambalpur, Nuapada is also less than the state average,” Sethi added.
In Secondary wing too, the performance of districts like Gajapati, Bolangir, Bargarh, Sonepur, Nuapada, Cuttack, Khordha, Koraput, Ganjam, Boudh, Malkanagiri, Keonjhar, Sambalpur is less than the state average.
“The overall attendance in Higher Secondary classes is abysmally low in Gajapati, Sonepur, Baragarh, Kandhamal, Nuapada which is matter of concern,” Sethi stated his letter.
“The above figures lead us to believe that thorough analysis has to be made to know the whereabouts of the absentee students. It may so happen these students who are not attending the offline classes might have dropped-out/ moved out along with their parents/lost interest in academic activities due to non-continuance of the teaching schedule due to the pandemic situation and many other reasons, which need analysis,” the principal secretary said.
Sethi said during the review meeting conducted by the S&ME department it is observed that many students passing out from Class-VIII are not taking readmission in Class-IX and they might be dropping out.
“Special care to be taken to get them admitted at Secondary level in the nearby school. So we have to devise location specific strategy to bring back the students to the classroom,” Sethi said.
The Collectors have been asked to adopt the following strategies or any other innovative ideas to bring back dropouts
“Since the Learning Recovery Plan (LRP) is under implementation by Government to recover from the learning loss, maximum attendance of students should be ensured,” Sethi emphasized.
The move comes following the long standing protests over fulfillment of various demands by teachers association like Odisha Primary Teachers’ Association (OPTA) and the Odisha Shikshya Sahayak Association (OSA).
School and Mass Education department minister Badri Patra held discussions with the teachers’ associations on Monday assuring that the minimum certificate of teaching (CT) qualification for the filling up the primary teachers will be upgraded from matriculation to Plus II.
The government is planning to reform the cadre of the primary teachers. The law and finance department has sought two months time to look into the matter and after it approves the decision, the education department will take necessary steps in this regard, Patra said.
After the Centre provides 60 percent of the funds, the salary of the teachers will be increased.
Similarly, the state government is planning to provide ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh to kin of teachers who suffer untimely death and financial assistance of Rs 1 lakh to teachers who suffer complete disability.
Also Read: Fake ads offering jobs at IB, FCI: Public notice issued; get the details!
The teachers’ association has welcomed the decision. “The government has assured to regularise as many as 17,000 teachers of 2011 batch, who are yet to be made permanent and modify the post of Shikshya Sahayaks to Junior teachers. After the assurance of the government, we have decided to suspend our cease work protests,” Malay Kumar Jena, OSA president said.
https://youtu.be/scftDKlglhI
In a letter, the S&ME department today directed district education officers to conduct grievance hearing on Saturday afternoons and ensure that grievances that can be redressed at block and district level be given adequate importance at the earliest.
"Since teaching and non-teaching staff are either approaching the Department Grievance Cell at OPEPA or visiting the Secretariat or Directorates quite often for every small issue, a habit that leads to their absence from school/college/training institutions creating serious dislocations in teaching-learning process and other day-to-day activities of the institution," the letter read.
Issuing fresh guidelines for streamlining the redressal mechanism, the department in the letter said an employee has to obtain written permission from competent authority before airing his/her grievances before the grievance cell where the intervention of the Director or the government is required.
Grievances related to transfer of an employee within a district shall not be heard in the grievance cell of the department, the letter added.
https://youtu.be/NrsSpzLsfV0
The NBWs were issued in connection with the regularisation of two Shikshya Karmis.
The tribunal had instructed for job regularisation of the two Shikshya Karmis in 2011, but as the instruction was not carried out, Chopra and Seth were asked to appear in person.
A bailable warrant was also issued earlier against them to depose before SAT.
However, after failing to appear even after the bailable warrants, the SAT proceeded to issue NBWs against them.
The school management has decided to stop serving eggs to students as there are no prescribed guidelines for identifying a natural egg and a plastic egg. Even bigger problem is that there is no clear information on how a plastic egg looks like.
Many believe that the only way to check whether an egg is original or plastic is by breaking it.
“As the layer of egg inside was missing we suspected it to be plastic eggs,” said Jyoti Bage, Headmistress, St Mary’ school.
Moreover, the parents association has lodged an FIR in connection with the plastic egg recovered from school with Krushnachandrapur police outpost.
“Students and parents have registered complaints and we have asked SDPO to conduct an inquiry,” said SP Mayurbhanj R Prakash.
The preliminary report by the local block education officer has suggested that the eggs found in the school appear to be ‘unnatural’ as they are small in size and greasy than original ones.
Basing on the report, the matter has been brought to the notice of the health department, informed senior Officials of School and Mass Education.
“The samples have been collected and would be sent for examination,” said State Nodal Officer Mid-day meal Gangadhar Sahu.
One applicant can apply for maximum 10 colleges in the Common Application Form (CAF) to take admission for Plus II courses. For online registration, students can fill up the CAF available on www.dheodisha.gov.in .
Besides, SAMS Resource Centres opened across the State will help students fill up the admission form and get their queries answered.
As per the School and Mass Education department, the first cut-off list will be declared on June 13. Admission process in the first phase will be over between June 16 and 19.
Besides, managing committee members, health workers and panchayat raj representatives and educationists held rallies to create awareness among kids to get education.
While 90,990 students sat for exams in Science stream, 2, 43,106 examinees faced the test in Arts stream. Similarly, 28,481 candidates appeared in Commerce stream.
The Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE) has made elaborate arrangements for the examinations, which will continue till March 28.
For the security of question papers, 202 examination management hubs have been set up and high security has been put in place at all the centres along with 24x7 CCTV surveillance. Question papers would be sent from the hubs amid tight security and reach the examination centres between 7 to 9 am.
Students have been asked to report at their examination centres by 9.30 am while test will begin from 10 am and will continue till 1pm.
To ensure free and fair conduct of examination and prevent any illegal practices, the board has appointed observers, who will remain at the centres till the completion of examination. Besides, special observers will make surprise visits.
“To prevent malpractice 50 squads have been formed. Besides, Central squad, zonal regional directors will also visit the examination centres. Preparatory meetings have been done at district level with local administration, resource persons, and principals of management hubs all participating to make sure the examination is conducted peacefully throughout the state,” School and Mass Education Minister Debiprasad Mishra told media persons.
As per the modalities, teachers with 8 years of satisfactory work experience along with the desired qualifications will be regularized.
According to sources, the district-level committee will verify the required eligibility criteria and take a decision on regularization. Teachers fulfilling the eligibility criteria mentioned above will be considered as Level-V primary teachers who will be paid at par with the salary of a primary teacher.
Also Read: Odisha finalizes modalities for regularization of school teachers
The new modalities on regularization are expected to benefit 16,868 school teachers of the state, sources added.
Also Read: Odisha finalizes modalities for regularization of school teachers
“Even we are also discussing the issues of the teachers which are beyond the capacity of the state government and which are raised by the Opposition through point of order in the House,” Mishra said while replying to the questions of BJP member Pradip Purohit, Congress member Jacob Pradhan and BJD member Prafulla Samal.
Replying to another question of Congress member Ansuman Mohanty seeking clarifications on the closure of the State Institute of Educational Technology (SIET), a Centrally sponsored programme, Mishra said the state government had decided to stop the programme as it failed to meet its objective.
Following an inter-ministerial meeting chaired by Finance minister Pradeep Amat, School and Mass Education minister Debi Prasad Mishra informed that the modalities have been finalized and will be sent to the government for approval.
Also Read: Gana Sikhyakas stage stir before ministers’ houses
“We had deliberations on the various demands of the school teachers and we have finalized the modalities for regularization of teachers. Moreover, we also had discussions with the Law department regarding the schools which had not fulfilled grant-in-aid criteria for eligibility. After we receive a report on the legal implications, we will find which all grant-in-aid schools are eligible and forward the proposal to the cabinet for approval. We also discussed the financial implications of schools which are not receiving uniforms, especially grant-in-aid ME schools,” said Mishra.
Commenting on time frame for implementation, Mishra said, as it is a process it will take required time and implementation will be done once decisions are approved.
A separate directorate, to be called the Higher Secondary Education Directorate, will be formed under the Mass Education department to look after junior colleges, sources said.
Debi Prasad Mishra, School and Mass Education minister, said, “The office of the directorate will be located at the State Resource Centre of the Mass Education department. Besides, the General Administration department will make changed in the rules and notify them. The directorate will start functioning from July.”
The minister added that 48 staff will be appointed at the directorate and 1,027 post graduate teachers will be recruited for the junior colleges.
Notably, the Higher Education department had on Monday notified that Plus II colleges, syllabus, the conduct of examinations and administrative matters will come under the purview of the School and Mass Education department.
A total of 1,455 Plus II colleges will be brought under the Mass Education department following the notification.
The state government will now receive additional Rashtriya Madhyamik Siksha Abhijan (RMSA) grants for curriculum and infrastructure development because of this move.
“We had a meeting with the Higher Education minister and the department secretary yesterday where they requested us to wait for three months for our demands to be fulfilled. We know very well that their assurance is an attempt to deceive us. They have purposefully assured us to wait for three months because by that the time, the annual examinations and the evaluation of papers would be over. Hence we have decided to boycott the annual Plus Two and Plus Three examinations and evaluation of examination papers. We will also gherao all examination hub centres. Under no circumstances shall we allow the concerned authorities to conduct the examinations,” an agitating lady lecturer of the All Odisha 662 (+2 &+3) Non-Government Lecturers' and Employees' Association (AONGLEA), told OTV today.
The Block Grant Secondary School Teachers and Employees Association has also decided to boycott and annual HSC examination and valuation of papers.
Talking to the media persons here today, chief convener of the Association, Prakash Mohanty said the Association has been on agitation for 22 years since 1994 while the latest round of agitation had been on for six months since August 10 last year.
“After 46 days of cease work, the state government had invited us for a discussion followed by an assurance from the Chief Minister that he would sincerely look into our demands. But nothing has been done till date. I want to know whether the Chief Minister is really keen about the development of education in the state. If 6-7 ministers, with important portfolios, fail to take a decision after eight rounds of meeting, the teachers have no option other than going for a cease work. The state government has to bring a grant-in-aid Act for the colleges, secondary school and ME schools. Unless the government introduces the Act, the agitation will continue,” Mohanty pointed out.
“It is grossly unfortunate that the state government has not included the Higher Education minster in the ministerial committee to discuss our demands, which is a clear indication that the Chief Minister is not going to withdraw grant-in-aid policy from the Higher Education. If our minister is not included in the committee, then who will raise our demands? In protest against the decision of the state government, we will stop the annual Plus Three examinations on February 16, university examinations on February 20 and HSC examinations on March 2. We are determined to return from here only after ensuring that the government has withdrawn its block grant policy or else, we will lay down our lives here,” warned Golakh Nayak, president of AONGLEA.
School and Mass Education Minister Debi Prasad Mishra told reporters that summer vacation has been advanced in all the schools in the state which would remain closed from tomorrow in view of the scorching heat.
The schools, both government-run and private ones, would reopen on June 18 after summer vacation, which normally begins from the first week of May, he said, adding steps would be taken to make up for the loss of classes.
The state virtually turned into a cauldron as the mercury breached the 42 degree mark in nine towns and 40 degree mark in at least 14 places.
The MeT office has forecast that the heat wave will intensify. Two sunstroke deaths have so far been reported in the state, one each from Bargarh and Angul district, according to the office of the Special Relief Commissioner.
Angul town recorded a maximum temperature of 44.1 degrees Celsius, it was 43.8 degrees Celsius at Hirakud, 43.6 degrees Celsius at both Balangir and Talcher, 43.5 degrees Celsius at Bhawanipatna and 43 degrees Celsius at Sundargarh, it said.
Jharsuguda recorded 42.6 degrees Celsius, while the mercury stood at 42.2 degrees Celsius in Sambalpur, 42 degrees Celsius at Malkangiri, 41.6 degrees Celsius at Sonepur, 41.5 degrees Celsius at Keonjhargarh, 40.6 degrees Celsius at Phulbani and 40.4 degrees Celsius at Dhenkanal, the MeT office said.
Bhubaneswar recorded a maximum temperature of 37.7 degrees Celsius, while the mercury at neighbouring Cuttack city touched 38 degrees Celsius. There was little respite from the scorching heat in most places of interior Odisha.
Meanwhile, the MeT office said the heat wave like condition is likely to prevail over interior and western districts of Odisha for a week and the temperature may range between 43 and 45 degrees Celsius in western region.
Temperature in some of the coastal districts may increase up to 40 degrees Celsius but sea breeze is likely to prevail in these areas in the afternoon, it said.
Bhubaneswar: School children in Odisha will soon get to know how legendary leader and former chief minister Biju Patnaik had once rescued Prime Minister of Indonesia and his role in the freedom struggle.
The state government has decided to include the life story of Biju Patnaik in their text books.
State school and mass education minister Debi Prasad Mishra said the government has planned to include the former chief minister's biography in the high school syllabus as part of the state's tribute to the legendary leader on his birth centenary.
Also Read: Infra development of old high schools underway: Minister
Mishra said inspiring incidents from Biju Patnaik's life will be included in the curriculum from the academic year 2017-18 for students of Class VI to Class X.
The chapters would include the leader's childhood stories, his years of education, struggles of life and political success and failures, he said.
Mishra said Biju Patnaik's popular stories like his role in India's freedom struggle, the rescue of Indonesian Prime Minister, his adventures as a pilot, would all be part of the text books.
Sahitya Akademi winner and popular children's writer Das Benhur would pen the stories on Biju Patnaik for the school syllabus.
Apart from Biju Patnaik, the life of other prominent sons of the soil like Veer Surendra Sai and Netaji Subhash Bose would also be included in the syllabus, Mishra said.
Welcoming the state government's decision of including Biju Patnaik's life in school books, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Narasingha Mishra said the life and works of eminent leaders like Nabrakrushna Choudhary, Harekrushna Mahtab should also be included in the school curriculum.
The government took this step after reports of some women workers, including teachers, facing sexual harassment at their workplaces.
"District Education Officers and District Project Coordinators will take prompt action in case of the complaint relating to sexual harassment. After receipt of the complaint, preliminary inquiry is to be conducted within three days and report to be submitted to the respective collector and the controlling authority," said the guidelines.
A copy of the report will also be sent to the grievance redressal officer of the department.
It said the collector will decide on referring the matter to the local complaint committee (LCC) for necessary recommendations.
"LCC shall provide its confidential report within 30 days. After due inquiry, the collector will take a decision within 25 days of receipt of recommendations. The statutory provisions of prevention of sexual harassment to women in workplace are to be followed strictly for disposal of the complaint," said the guidelines.
According to the guidelines, if the preliminary report finds any threat to the victim, her workplace can be changed within the district. The School and Mass Education (S&ME) department shall issue an order for the transfer of the women employee from one district to another within 15 days of receipt of the report from the collector.
However, it should be done only in exceptional cases with due diligence, said the guidelines. The LCC may also forward the complaint to the police for inquiry.
Itishree Pradhan, a woman teacher in Rayagada district, was set afire by some miscreants which led to her death in Oct 2013.
The murder of the teacher became a major political issue as the victim had submitted a complaint at all administrative branches, including the chief minister's office, pleading for protection as she was facing sexual harassment at the workplace. But her complaint was not acted upon.
As per the directives from the BSE, the District Education Officers (DEOs) have ordered the headmasters of schools in their restive jurisdiction to ‘submit the Tabulation Register of Class IX and X exams at the nearest exam centre by today’.
The tabulation details should be prepared in the format prescribed by the Board. Name of the schools, marks, roll numbers are mentioned in the format.
The headmasters have been asked to submit the marks of the Class IX and marks of class tests of Matric students. Marks secured by the students in both exams should be submitted, sources said.
The BSE has asked the DEOs in written to ensure the submission of the relevant documents at the concerned centres.
Meanwhile, the Odisha Secondary School Teachers Association (OSSTA) has protested BSE’s move in preparation of the format for the publication of Matric results.
OSSTA secretary Prakash Mohanty said the preparation of the format within a day is not possible for the teachers.
Notably, the Odisha government had earlier announced the cancellation of the BSE Odisha Class 10 board exams 2021 in view of the worsening Covid-19 situation in the state. The exams were scheduled to be held from May 3.
“In view of the surge in COVID-19 cases, the Class-10 examination conducted by BSE, Odisha scheduled to be held from May 3, 2021, has been cancelled,” School and Mass Education Minister S R Dash had said while announcing the cancellation of exams.
As per initial reports, the School and Mass Education department in the state has assessed a loss of Rs 417.83 crore due to the cyclone, said Information and Public Relations secretary Sanjay Kumar Singh.
He informed that a maximum number of 2,134 schools were damaged in Puri district, which was the worst affected in the cyclonic storm. A total of 1,002 schools were damaged in Cuttack district, Singh added.
He further said that the Culture Department has assessed a loss of Rs 72 crore due to the damage caused to several institutions functioning under the department.
There has been a damage of Rs 15 crore in the Sanskruti Bhawan and while the damage to the State Library has been estimated at Rs 3 crore.
Meanwhile, the Odisha government has claimed that it would restore 100 per cent pipe water supply in the rural areas of the affected districts by Tuesday.
Keeping in view the damages caused to the schools in Fani-hit Puri district, the newly-appointed minister has directed all the concerned officials to expedite the restoration process and complete the construction work of these schools as soon as possible.
"All schools damaged by the cyclonic storm should be repaired and renovated by June 19 or before reopening of schools, whichever is earlier," said Dash to all District Education Officers (DEO) and Block Education Officers (BEO) through video-conferencing from the Secretariat.
He also informed that distribution of books to students would be given top priority now as the recently published matric results were disastrous.
This apart, Dash said that schools whose performance was below par and the ones which registered ZERO result have been sent notices seeking an explanation on the low performance.
Newly-appointed Minister of School & Mass Education, Samir Ranjan Das holds review meeting at State Secretariat after assuming charge. #LISTEN to what he says pic.twitter.com/ur8S4A5hKQ
— OTV (@otvnews) May 30, 2019
Following an inspection, Dash directed the BEO to take stringent action against all those staff who were absent during the duty hours. This apart, he has asked the BEO to gauge the standard of teaching in all schools and conduct frequent reviews whether classes are being conducted regularly.
"Many staff have not come on time. We have put a cross mark against their names in the register. As per government orders, teachers are not permitted to come here during office hours. Some who were present left after seeing me here. I have asked the BEO to see that the CRCs conduct classes in the first two hours and then leave for monitoring, when required. I am going to maintain a file on all these developments. As promised, the surprise visits will continue," said the SME minister.
BEO Sasmita Mali said, "Out of four persons who were not present, two are on deputation. The rest two will be served show cause notices for their delay in reaching the office."
Meanwhile, Congress leader Satya Prakash Nayak has criticised the government's move to shut down 966 schools with 10 or lesser number of students. "The quality of education is deteriorating in Odisha. As many as 40,805 schools lack electricity supply whereas 48,936 schools do not have computers. The State government has become an agent of the privately-run schools."
The meeting discussed on division of staff, and other issues pertaining to land records and college infrastructure, the major verdict being the separation of physical infrastructure of Plus-II and Plus-III colleges.
State SME Minister Samir Dash said that though a few government institutions including BJB, Ravenshaw have separate Plus-II and Plus-III Colleges, it was decided in the meeting today that the ones which are still functioning as a single institution will be split into two.
For the next two months, a committee of the DHE will work on finding the mechanism to extract land record division for the said institutions.
Meanwhile, Higher Education Minister Arun Sahoo clarified that the colleges will continue to function normally, and this decision will not affect academic events, whatsoever.
The colleges will impart teaching to students through the teaching and non-teaching staff from Higher Education Department, i.e. in case the Plus-II colleges face a shortage of teaching staff, teachers of Plus-III will take the classes. And once everything is streamlined, the senior lecturers will go back to their original posts, sources said.
The Minister also assured that the recruitment process for Plus-II colleges would be done in phases and will be completed in next 3-4 years.
In response to a query by BJD’s Choudwar-Cuttack MLA Souvik Biswal about the number of fake teachers in Odisha schools, Das said, “As many as 15 such teachers have been caught in Primary education level, 77 in secondary education level while 125 Sikhya Sahayaks so far were found to have submitted fake certificates.”
Das further said that a probe has already been ordered to verify educational and caste certificates of all those accused teachers following which appropriate action would be taken against them.
“The process of their termination and criminal action has already been initiated against the erring teachers,” added Das.
Notably, reports of a large number of fake teachers unearthed in Ganjam district through an RTI query recently, which raised serious concerns on the quality of education imparted to the school children.
The Board had mentioned that if a student fails in the first year exams, s/he will not be promoted to the second year. The students will have to qualify with 33 per cent marks in the examination.
However, the announcement coming just a month before the exams has triggered massive protests across the State as students have demanded the Board to immediately revoke the decision to not allow them to jump into the second year if they fail to secure 33% marks in the first year exams.
Students of Biju Patnaik College, Maharshi College, Deb Ray College, Rajdhani College, Ekamra College staged dharna protesting CHSE's sudden decision stating that courses are yet to be covered. Either we should be given sufficient time for preparations or the Board should implement the move from next year onwards, demanded the irate students.
https://youtu.be/9j_Ji-RFGN4
In response, School and Mass Education minister Samir Ranjan Das said, "There is no need to panic. Odisha government's intention is not to fail students in the first year exams of Plus-II. Like every year, the examination will be held in the first year, but it will be conducted in a more organised manner from this year."
As per CHSE, in case a student fails to clear the exams with the required percentage, the Board will give another chance to clear the backlogs. “Students will have another chance to clear their backlogs if any. If someone fails in the first examination from February 15 to 29, remedial classes would be conducted for them and the second clearance exam will be held in May-end,” the minister had earlier clarified.
It is pertinent to mention that so far first-year examination was considered a mock test wherein a student had to just appear in the examination to be considered qualified to jump to the second year.
Bhubaneswar: Any bid to reform the education system in the state is usually met with protests either from students or from the teachers. Teachers in the past have agitated against attempts to impose a dress code and to ensure their attendance in schools and colleges. Initially, efforts to stop college teachers from engaging in private tuitions had also evoked protests.
Cleansing and strengthening of the examination system is an integral part of education reforms. Here, too, any new idea is challenged immediately by teachers and students. In a bizarre case in western Odisha, the students of a college had not only insisted on taking exams in their own college but also resorted to violence when stopped from copying. Unfortunately, even parents have been supportive of their wayward wards in many cases.
The latest example of a reform bid triggering protests is the brouhaha over the mass education department’s decision to make securing 33 per cent marks in Plus II first-year compulsory for students to be promoted to the final year. Students across the state are on a warpath, boycotting classes, blocking roads and burning tyres.
The argument of the students is that the decision has been taken in a hurry with very little time left for them to prepare for the exams. In certain colleges, teachers are yet to complete the course. Hence, students find this decision of the government arbitrary and would like it to be implemented from the next year, if at all.
I find this argument rather strange. If a student attends classes regularly and also studies at home securing 33 per cent marks for him or her should be child’s play. As for courses not having been completed, I am pretty sure that teachers who set the questions will take this fact into account and design question papers accordingly.
Instead of protesting students should welcome the decision of the government to make securing 33 per cent marks compulsory in the first year in order to become eligible to appear for the final year examination. This is a great opportunity for them to test themselves and to prepare themselves properly for a crucial examination of their academic career.
The fact of the matter is that protests have become fashionable in the academic world. There are dharnas and demonstrations at the slightest provocation. But being part of the intelligentsia both students and teachers are setting a bad example by resorting to frequent protests.
The phenomenon is common to colleges and universities across the country. Sometimes the protests are so irrational that it is hard to believe that supposedly well-read and enlightened people can behave in this manner. One could not resist feeling disgusted when the students of faculty of Sanskrit Vidya Dham Vigyan (SVDV) at the Banaras Hindu University sat on a dharna against the appointment of a Muslim teacher. The agitation was called off only after the teacher was shifted to the department of Sanskrit in the faculty of arts.
Both students and teachers must curb this tendency to resort to protests on any issue as it is increasingly beginning to look like blackmailing tactics. They should remember than educational institutions are meant to generate light and not self-consuming heat.
(DISCLAIMER: This is an opinion piece. The views expressed are the author’s own and have nothing to do with OTV’s charter or views. OTV does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same)
The new departments are the School and Mass Education, Rural Development, Energy, Higher Education, and Science and Technology.
Speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik called upon the public servants to respect and fulfil people's will.
"Our constitution starts with 'We the People'. The people of this great nation have given us this Constitution, and given us the responsibility to run the government on behalf of them. We are 'not them', we are 'on behalf of them'," he said.
Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy said the 'Mo Sarkar' was a unique experiment to realise the spirit of democracy. The success of the programme would lead the way to other democratic institutions, he added.
The objective of the 'Mo Sarkar' programme is to provide service with dignity to people who are coming to government offices. It mandates that anyone visiting these offices would have his/her mobile number registered.
The Chief Minister, the Ministers and the departmental heads make calls to randomly selected numbers with the purpose to improve the governance by collecting feedback on behaviour and professionalism of officials.
(IANS)
School and Mass Education Minister, Samir Ranjan Dash on Sunday said the schools which have hostels facilities for students will reopen in the State.
Not only the schools falling under the School and Mass Education, but the hostels of TRW schools will also reopen in the State, said Dash.
"The hostel facilities in the schools for Class 10 and 12 students will reopen in the State. The State government has already taken a decision and soon a detailed SOP will be issued," Dash added.
On Saturday, the State government announced the reopening of schools for Class 10 and 12 students from January 8.
In its circular, the State government stated that the courses of the class 10 students will be completed by April 26 while for Plus II syllabus will be covered by April 28.
Also Read: Big Breaking: Schools In Odisha To Reopen On January 8
As per the above schedule, 100 days classroom teaching will be held for class 10 and 12 students which means they will also have to attend classes every Saturday and Sunday.
The board examinations for Class 10 will begin on May 3 and conclude on May 15 while Plus II students will appear for the annual exams between May 15 and June 11.
While talking to reporters, Dash said that in the event a decision on reopening schools in January is arrived at, priority will be given to conducting classes for Class X and XII standards so as to facilitate students appearing the board examinations next year.
Though the Special Relief Commissioner (SRC) had given its nod for reopening of schools in December, the School and Mass Education Department decided to take extra precaution in view of the COVID-19 situation.
“That’s why we are gearing up for reopening of schools from January next year,” said Dash.
Dash’s announcement came minutes after the State Education Secretary Saswat Mishra announced plans for reopening colleges and universities in the New Year while shifting semester examinations by a couple of months. Mishra said that the resumption of normal classes had become imperative in order to make up for the class-room studies of students as chances of more students failing in exams looms large in on line classes.
Also Read: Big Announcement: Colleges To Reopen From New Year In Odisha; Semester Exams To Be Postponed!
According to Dash, except festival holidays, classes will be held even on Saturday and Sundays as there are plans to conduct physical classes for at least 100 days in the State.
“We are hopeful that all schools will reopen in January and already the department will come up with special study materials for students. The study materials will be released by Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik,” said Dash.
Dash further stated that the School and Mass Education Department is aware of the fact that a lot of students are in stress. Hence, the study materials will provide much needed relief to the students, the minister said.
“Classes for X and XII students will certainly reopen in January and a decision on reopening and conduct of classes for other standards will be taken after consultations with Odisha government,” Dash added.
Also Read: Odisha Sets Eyes On SOPs For Reopening Of Schools, Colleges