BHUBANESWAR: The State Government has decided to provide free bicycles to the students of Class IX from 2016-17 academic year.
This was announced by School and Mass Education Minister Debi Prasad Mishra in the Assembly on Friday while replying to the discussion on the demand for grants of the department. Mishra said the decision will benefit 10,76,924 students. The State Government provides free bicycles to all Class X students of Government schools.
Stating that 65 upper primary schools will be upgraded to high schools during the year under the RMSA scheme, the Minister said 7,247 posts of Siksha Sahayaks will be filled up to bring down vacancies in schools. He said 3,669 teachers have been appointed on contract basis against 5,634 posts in ME schools.
The Minister said 100 acres of land have been acquired at Basantpur in Sambalpur for construction of Sainik School. The State Government has made a provision of Rs 20 crore for the school in 2016-17 out of a total of cost Rs 70 crore, he said.
Mishra said teaching of Odia is being given priority by the Government. The State Government has decided to reserve 7.5 per cent of seats in BEd courses for students with Graduate degree in Odia. He said orientation programme will also be started for Odia teachers at primary school level in phases. The Minister said a provision of Rs 200 crore has been made for Odisha Adarsh Vidyalaya. While 100 OAVs have been set up during the 2016-17 academic year, plans are afoot to start 100 more next year, he said. Mishra said a decision has been taken to include rugby, tennikoit and swimming in school sports. The department budget of Rs 11,202.84 crore includes Rs 216.48 crore for maintenance, infrastructure development and extension of primary and elementary schools.
Code for Teachers in Making
Bhubaneswar: The State Government on Friday announced that a code of professional ethics will be prepared for teaching and non-teaching staff of universities and colleges in Odisha. Announcing this in the Assembly while replying to the debate on the demands for grant of the Higher Education Department amounting to Rs 2197.49 crore, Minister of State for Higher Education Pradip Panigrahy said there will be online assessment of performance of teachers. The Minister said the problems faced by block grant teaching and non-teaching staff will be solved through discussion. Panigrahy announced that the State Government has decided to open colleges in three blocks - Bandhugaon in Koraput, Nandahandi in Nabarangpur and Chandrapur in Rayagada districts - which do not have college. The Government has established model degree in colleges at Boudh, Deogarh, Malkangiri, Nabarangpur, Nayagarh, Nuapada, Rayagada and Sonepur where teaching will be started from 2017 academic year.