Odisha Govt Reduces Students Strength Norm For Merger Of Schools

Bhubaneswar: Amid stiff opposition from BJP and Congress, the Odisha government on Sunday revised the norms for the merger of primary and upper primary schools in the scheduled and non-scheduled areas of the state.

Announcing this in the State Assembly on Sunday, School and Mass Education Minister Samir Ranjan Dash said that schools having less than 15 students instead of 20 as decided earlier in the scheduled areas and less than 20 students in the non-scheduled areas will be merged.

“The exact number of schools to be merged will be determined accordingly. Apart from this, the government will also reconsider the merger of the schools in the scheduled areas having natural barriers,” he added.

He said that decision to change the norms was taken considering the concern of the parents and guardians.

“There are less than 40 students in 14382 schools. The process for the merger of 7772 such schools is underway.  Among these, 1724 schools have less than 25 students and 6048 schools have less than 20 students,” he added.

The minister further said that If the MLAs had any issues in this regard, they can either redress their grievances at the district level or discuss with him.

“The state government has no intention to close down schools deliberately. The merger of the primary and upper primary schools will improve the teaching environment and ensure quality education. Providing primary and secondary education at one place is the motto of the Odisha government and therefore, it decided to merge the schools in line with Rajasthan and Jharkhand,” he pointed out.

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