Saturday, 24 May 2025

Some Facts on Education in Odisha

 

Some Facts on Education in Odisha

BJD Manifesto 2019 and fulfilment of Promises

The following are the BJD manifesto relating to education 

1.      Odisha Adarsha Vidyalaya(OAV) in remaining 124 blocks .

2.      Residential accommodation, transportation and infrastructural and state of the art teaching facilities in all OAVs.

3.      One model schools in 114 ULBs

4.      High schools with IT Labs

5.      Sports education and culture in schools will be strengthened.

6.      Scholarships and stipends to be provided in SEBC students pursuing pre and post matric studies .

7.      A Comprehensive Policy  for ensuring employability through higher education to be put in place.

8.      All technical institutions, colleges, and universities with free Wi-Fi-services.

9.      The scope of Mo School campaign extended to holistic school education system in the state. 

Going through this I don’t know what one can think about this ? Can we say this is the  Manifesto of a political Party which has been ruling Odisha since last 20 years?  Can anybody think that they have any vision or mission for the majority of children  who depend on Government school(Village school) ?  Does BJD has a mandate to promote our Odia language and culture ? or want to destroy our public education system and our language which has been recognised as Classical language ? Out of 9 points 3 points are on so called Odisha Adarsha Bidyalaya. Nothing is there about implementation RTE and improving public education system. We have number of problems in the state relating to education such as single teachers schools, schools without infrastructures, low performance of children, retention and transition problems, problems of teacher education.  Nothing in this regard has been mentioned in the Manifesto of a political party which has been ruling Odisha since last twenty years. BJD has  never given any importance to education and as a result it never  consulted experts in the field of education for planning its education programme. I have doubt if it consults its own ministers for planning its activities. Everything whatever you say Odisha Adarsha Vidhayala , ANWESHA programmes were all decided by the CMO and these are  being implemented by the  department at the cost of all village schools by which maximum children depend on.    

Therefore, it is very difficult to assess their performance during last 6months in view of the manifesto.

1.      Odisha Adarsah Bidyala is  an obstruction of development of languages of the state since it is following CBSE curriculum.  It is also a de-motivating factor for teachers working in state primary education department. Teachers working in government elementary schools openly showing displeasure in public meetings.  Whatever OAV has been established  it is not properly functioning due to lack of teachers and other staff. In many places there is no residential facilities for children and as a result parents are being exploited by the owners of private mess  and having financial burden.

2.      It has mentioned in the manifesto that High schools with IT lab. What does it means ? All high schools will have an IT lab. But there is no information in public domain relating IT lab in Secondary schools. At present   43308 schools have no electricity facilities.

3.       There are 42409 schools which do not have a playground. What kind of sports government is promoting,  is a big question.

4.      No steps have been taken to provide stipends and scholarship to SEBC students.

5.      Comprehensive policy for employability – has not yet initiated .

6.      No information relating Wi-Fi- services in colleges and universities .  

7.      Mo school programme has absolutely no impact in village and rural schools. No plan for catering schools located in hard to reach area or no plan for the schools which are catering underprivileged community

8.      where it is very difficult to mobilise funding from alumni.

 

Problems highlighted relating to education in Newspapers

Teachers shortage hits education in schools: 14 thousand teachers posts lying vacant in various govt. and aided high schools(8498 in govt. high schools,2543 in aided schools).21,000 teachers lying vacant at primary level. 1700 clerical post are lying vacant. The Indian Express, 5.11. 2019.

ü  The Education system has been paralysed. The prameya, 04 august 2019

ü  35% of teachers post lying vacant in model school, The Prameya, 29.07.2019

ü  299 high schools have only one class room in the state, The Samaj, 26.06.2019

ü  3 schools are running in one school building. Adrsha bidyalaya is running in store room. The Prameya, 08.07.2019.

ü  200 crores spent on ujjal, uthana and utkarsha. No impact on students, The Samaj, 1Nov 2019.  

ü  996 schools have been closed.

 

What decisions have been taken by  Government during last 6 months?(From Newspapers)

ü  Traditional Examination system has been brought back from Class-5 to 8.  Without assessing the causes of low performance of students in government schools, Government decided to stop No detention Policy which was a mandate of RTE Act.

ü  Multi-pattern and short answer type  question papers in the line of line of CBSE from class-6th to 8th.

ü  New Curriculum and New Examination system . The system will be implemented from 2022(The Prameya,16, 2019)

ü  Admit cards will be issued to each students  and exam papers will be supplied to all schools. Exam will be conducted at a time all over Odisha. (The NItidin, Nov 19, 2019. ) Exam paper s cannot be evaluated by  by  teachers of same school.

ü  NCPCR has suggested to implement an uniform syllabus for all schools. Who has authorise NCPCR to do so ?

ü  It has been decided that English coaching  will be conducted in  5 schools in each district(The Sambad,28.06.2019).

ü  It has been decided  to develop  smart class in  56 schools.

ü  Government of Odisha has decided to increase the duration of classes in 3 subjects –mathematics, English and Science- in all state run schools.

ü  Spoken English in Class-1 in Government schools. Duration of English class increased from45 minutes to 90 minutes.(The Indian Express, 22.01.2020)   

From the above one can imagine the fate and priorities  of the public funded education system in Odisha.  

 

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