BHUBANESWAR: The state government on Thursday decided to merge the Board of Secondary Education (BSE) and the Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE) into one single board in order to strengthen the school education system.
The decision was taken at a review meeting of the School and Mass Education department chaired by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi at the Lok Seva Bhawan.
The BSE is responsible for the curriculum and exams for Classes 1 to 10. CHSE is in overall charge of Class XI and XII. The meeting felt there is a need of a single board to streamline school education in the state and merging the two boards into one was important.
In view of the teachers’ shortage in schools, particularly at primary education level, it was also decided that the state will recruit around 45,000 primary teachers in the next three years. At present, Odisha has 45,292 primary schools with 1,60,319 teacher posts. As per the NEP-2020, an additional 39,366 teacher posts will have to be created. Moreover, by December this year, 5,067 posts will fall vacant due to retirement of teachers.
The chief minister directed officials to take steps to fill up 44,433 teacher posts in the next three years, with around 15,000 recruited every year. Steps will be taken to regularise schematic primary teachers. Besides, all students of Classes IX and X will receive free textbooks.
For safety of students of residential government schools, it was decided that ANMs will be appointed in the hostels. One ANM or multipurpose health worker will be posted for every 300 students. It was also decided that the approval process for new private schools will be made online.
The CM stressed education of tribal children in their mother-tongue, which would facilitate language-based communication. He said in collaboration with SCSTRTI, steps will be taken to establish a multi-lingual education centre in Koraput.
For education of children with disabilities, regular teachers holding BEd degrees will be appointed as cluster resource persons. It was also decided to upgrade the State Council of Educational Research and Training on the lines of NCERT and strengthen the Directorate of Textbook Publication and Marketing.