Bhubaneswar: In a major reform aimed at streamlining school education, the Odisha government has decided to merge the Board of Secondary Education (BSE) and the Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE) into a single, unified board. The proposal was cleared at a high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Thursday evening. As part of the decisions, the Chief Minister announced that all students in Classes IX and X will now receive free textbooks. Until now, this benefit was restricted to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe students, while free textbooks were already being provided up to Class VIII. Highlighting the government’s focus on holistic development, the CM said Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANMs) or multipurpose health workers will be deployed in student hostels at the ratio of one per 300 students to address basic health needs. In another step towards transparency, approvals for new private schools will now be processed entirely online. The Chief Minister also underlined the importance of mother tongue-based education for tribal students to improve learning outcomes. To facilitate this, a Multilingual Education Centre will be established in Koraput with support from the SC & ST Research and Training Institute (SCSTRTI). For inclusive education, the state will appoint trained special educators (B.Ed in Special Education) as resource persons across clusters to support differently-abled children. Additionally, the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) will be developed on the lines of the NCERT, while the Directorate of Textbook Publication and Marketing will be further strengthened. The meeting was attended by School and Mass Education Minister Nityananda Gond, Chief Secretary Manoj Ahuja, Principal Secretary to the CM Saswat Mishra, Finance Secretary Sanjeev Mishra, School and Mass Education Secretary Shalini Pandit, Odisha School Education Programme Director Ananya Das, and other senior officials.
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