Govt to merge 1603 UP schools with high schools

Bhubaneswar: The state government has decided to merge 1,603 government upper primary (UP) schools with the adjacent/nearby high schools with effect from September 1.
A notification issued by the school and mass education department said the merger decision was taken for optimum utilization of available resources. Low enrolment in these school for years was the other reason.
Following the merger, the new educational institutions will be named as Nodal High School after the name of the high schools. The modalities for the merger will be worked out within September 15 this year, it said.
After the merger, classes up to VIII shall be treated as elementary unit and Class IX and X as the secondary unit of the school. In case of high school with elementary classes, these will be merged with that of the nodal high school, the notification added.
A maximum of 145 schools will be merged in Balasore and 135 in Cuttack, official sources said.