BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Saturday advised students to focus on studies rather than wasting time on social media.
Addressing a Teachers’ Day function at the Secondary Board High School in Cuttack, Majhi said, “As a student, your first responsibility is to study well, acquire skills and contribute to your own development and the development of the country. This is the basic objective of our education process. Stay away from anything that is likely to create obstacles in building their career.”
The chief minister said Odisha has become the first state in the country to provide free education from kindergarten to postgraduate-level under its ‘KG to PG’ initiative. Free textbooks and mid-day meals were being provided to students of Classes IX and X while the Shaheed Madho Singh Haath Kharcha Yojana had been introduced for tribal students, he said.
Reiterating the government’s commitment to to fill up 45,000 vacant teacher posts over the next three years, the chief minister said all efforts are being made to strengthen the education sector. The government is also constructing 2,200 world-class Godabarish Mishra Adarsha Prathamika Vidyalaya at a cost of Rs 12,000 crore and has opened 45,000 Shishu Vatika centres for pre-school children, he said. “Education is not merely imparting knowledge. It is a great process of building human beings,” Majhi said and explained the importance of Guru-Sishya parampara.
He lauded the role of the ‘Panchsakha Shiksha Setu’ initiative of School and Mass Education department in transforming schools by involving alumni and said the collective contribution of teachers, students, alumni and the public could help build a strong and self-reliant Odisha.
The chief minister felicitated five teachers for their dedicated service to students and education. Several legislators, senior officials of the School and Mass Education department, Cuttack district administration, Board of Secondary Education and alumni attended the programme.