BHUBANESWAR: The Centre has asked the state government to improve the gross enrolment ratio (GER), particularly at the foundational stage, and ensure effective tracking and coverage of out-of-school children (OoSC).
Sources said authorities of the School and Mass Education (SME) department have been asked to initiate steps in this regard, besides implementing other reforms, following a meeting of the Project Approval Board of the Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSE&L) under the ministry of Education on Samagra Shiksha for Odisha in the last week of May.
While the state’s GER at the Middle (Classes 6 to 8) and Secondary (Classes 9 to 12) levels, at 95.5 per cent and 72.3 per cent respectively, exceeds the national averages of 90.3 per cent and 68.5 per cent, its GER at the foundational stage (pre-school to Class 2) stood at 35 per cent, significantly below the national average of 77.2 per cent.
Similarly, the GER at the preparatory stage (Classes 3 to 5), at 94.6 per cent, was slightly below the national average of 95.4 per cent. Accordingly, the state government has been urged to prioritise targeted interventions to achieve 100 per cent GER across all stages, with a specific focus on the foundational and preparatory levels.
The state government has also been asked to focus on the identification and enrolment of out-of-school children. Sources said that while the state government has proposed interventions for 22,870 children under Special Training at the elementary level and 11,351 children under Support for Open Schooling at the secondary level, the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2025 estimated the number of OoSC aged 14 to 18 years at 8,01,790.
The state was urged to reconcile this disparity by leveraging school management committees (SMCs) to cross-check and validate the findings of the latest comprehensive child tracking survey.
The DoSE&L has also suggested bringing all remaining students into the formal schooling system, sources said. Further, the state government has been asked to rationalise schools with poor enrolment, focus on strategic teacher recruitment and expedite school upgradation wherever land is available.