BHUBANESWAR: Students of secondary grades in government schools of nine districts will get transport and escort facilities under the Samagra Shiksha initiative of the Ministry of Education for the 2024-25 academic session.
This was given the go-ahead by the project approval board of the department of School Education and Literacy under the ministry. The districts where secondary school students will get transport and escort facilities are Deogarh, Ganjam, Keonjhar, Koraput, Malkangiri, Nabarangpur, Nayagarh, Nuapada and Rayagada.
Of the 35,076 students in the state who will be covered under the initiative, 1,664 are of secondary grades. An amount of Rs 6,000 has been earmarked for the purpose per student who has to have a minimum of 75 per cent attendance. The Odisha School Education Programme Authority (OSEPA) informed this to all the district education officers on Thursday.
Earlier, the benefit was limited to primary and upper primary students of the schools situated in hilly areas, sparsely-populated habitations and forested regions.
The initiative was started in 2019 with an aim to provide transport allowance to students of primary and upper primary schools located in remote areas of the state. Students covering more than one km to attend primary schools and over 3 km to go to upper primary schools were eligible to get the benefit.