Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Tuesday issued the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for implementing its flagship Gyanodaya-Shiksharu Samruddhi scheme, which provides free education from Kindergarten to Postgraduate level.
Higher Education Minister Suryabanshi Suraj said the initiative aims to remove financial barriers to higher education and make quality learning accessible to all students. “The Chief Minister has announced that the admission and entire fee structure for KG-to-PG courses will be exempted. From class 1 to class 8, all kinds of fees is exempted. For class 9 to class 12, everything except examination fee will be exempted. In my knowledge, Odisha will be the first state to exempt all kinds of KG-to-PG fee, except examination fee, regardless of caste, creed, income or anything else. Some self-financed, or private-public partnership courses will be exempted from this scheme. The scheme is called Gyaanoday, which will lead society from education to prosperity,” he told reporters.
The scheme integrates elements of the National Education Policy 2020, which emphasises education for all, and supports the state’s long-term Vision Documents for 2036 and 2047 that target raising the Gross Enrolment Ratio to 60 per cent.
The SOP clarifies that the free education scheme will cover all regular academic undergraduate and postgraduate courses offered in government universities, government colleges, and government-aided colleges. It applies to both fresh admissions and re-admissions conducted through the Student Academic Management System (SAMS). Professional and technical courses, self-financing programmes, private unaided institutions, and PPP-mode institutions are excluded from the scheme. Students enrolling in eligible regular courses will not have to pay admission, re-admission, or other institutional fees. However, they will continue to bear examination fees. Hostel fees are also not covered under the scheme.
The government has assured that educational institutions will not face any revenue loss.
To ensure smooth implementation, the state will reimburse approved amounts to colleges in a phased manner: 10 per cent after admissions, 15 per cent in the second instalment, and the remaining 75 per cent in three equal instalments of 25 per cent each during the academic year. Students who have already paid admission fees in the first round will receive full refunds, which will be credited back to the same bank account from which the payment was made.
The SOP also prohibits state universities, government colleges, and government-aided colleges from arbitrarily increasing or revising fees for covered regular courses without approval from the designated Fee Regulation Committee.
A key eligibility condition is that students must maintain a minimum of 75 per cent attendance to continue availing the benefits. This requirement can be relaxed up to 65 per cent under exceptional circumstances. Students failing to meet the attendance threshold will not be eligible for the fee waiver.
The scheme extends the existing free education policy, which previously covered KG to Class VIII, to now include Classes IX to XII as well as regular UG and PG programmes from the current academic session. The initiative is expected to benefit more than 32 lakh students annually
Minister Suraj emphasised that the Gyanodaya Yojana will serve as a major step towards achieving higher enrolment goals while ensuring no deserving student is deprived of quality education due to financial constraints.
