BHUBANESWAR: The School and Mass Education (SME) department has officially rolled out state government’s ‘Gyanodaya - Shikshya Ru Samruddhi’ scheme and directed all eligible government, fully-aided and newly-aided secondary schools as well as government and aided higher secondary schools not to collect admission fee from students from the 2026-27 academic session.
Secretary N Thirumala Naik, in a letter, informed directors of higher secondary and secondary education wings that government has decided to waive admission fees as part of the KG-to-PG free education initiative approved by the cabinet. Accordingly, the officials were asked to ensure no admission fee is collected from any student during the admission process.
The communication stated that the waiver will apply to all eligible government, fully-aided and newly-aided secondary schools and government and aided higher secondary schools with effect from the 2026-27 academic session.
The department also instructed that necessary changes be made immediately to the Student Academic Management System (SAMS) portal to facilitate implementation of the decision. A detailed guidelines for implementation of the scheme will be brought out soon, the SME secretary said.