Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Tuesday directed for upgrading 14 high schools under Department ST & SC Development, Minorities & Backward Classes Welfare Department into higher secondary schools.
“There is a need to upgrade more high schools to reduce the dropout rate,” Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi said during a review of the department at Lok Seva Bhava here.
Majhi further directed for improving the condition of hostels of various primary schools being managed by the department, particularly in tribal-dominated districts.
Since the state government has taken up a programme to improve condition of 301 such hostels in undivided Koraput district, the CM advised officials to increase the capacity of these hostels to 100, as and where needed, for convenience of the students.
He also laid emphasis on improving the quality of food for children in the hostels run by the department. He also suggested giving utmost importance to health, safety and cleanliness. Majhi suggested ministers and secretaries to visit schools and hostels regularly and check the management of these institutions.
Establishment of Eklavya Model Schools was also discussed at the meeting. While, 114 such schools have been approved for Odisha, 32 are currently functional in the state, and 15 more are expected to open for admission this year, officials informed at the meeting.
The CM directed officials to expedite approvals necessary for these schools on priority.
Other important programmes such as ‘Madho Singh Hatakharcha Yojana’, Forest Land Rights, Anwesha, PM Janman, and Special Development Council were discussed to contain students’ dropout rate in the schools, run by the department.
ST & SC Development, Minorities and Backward Classes Department Minister Nityananda Gond, Chief Secretary Manoj Ahuja, Development Commissioner Anu Garg, Additional Chief Secretary to Chief Minister Nikunja Bihari Dhal, Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Revenue and Forest and Environment Satyabrata Sahu, Secretary, SC/ST Department, Roopa Roshan Sahoo were present at the meeting.
Notably, Odisha has the highest percentage of dropout of 27.3% at the secondary level, according to SDG India Index 2023 released by NITI Aayog recently.
