The State Government has decided to set up a ‘state institute of open schooling’.
Sources said preliminary exercise in this regard has already been started. Bye-law and guidelines of this institute are being finalised. The institute will take two or three months for its finalisation. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik reviewed its progress at a high level meeting at the secretariat. Besides, a decision has been taken to open 700 schools in the State under the Rashtriya Madhyamika Siksha Abhijan (RMSA). Work on 304 schools are in different stages of completion. However, land for 82 schools are yet to be identified.
The Chief Minister directed the School and Mass Education department to complete the tender process for the 82 schools by identifying land within the next three months. The State is also lagging behind in opening model schools in educationally backward blocks (EBBs).
The Centre has sanctioned opening of model schools in 111 EBBs of the State out of the total 173. Work has started only in 64 of these. The Chief Minister said work on rest of the model schools would be started by October.
A decision has also been taken to introduce information and communication technology (ICT) course at school level. Sources said the Odisha Knowledge Corporation Limited (OKCL) has been entrusted with the task.