School students take part in the Siksha Adhikar Abhiyan campaign in Bhubaneswar. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, April 3: The school and mass education department launched the Siksha Adhikar Abhiyan across all elementary schools of the state yesterday.

The campaign is part of Siksha ka haq abhiyan, a nationwide campaign launched by the ministry of human resource development as an initiative to ensure all schools in the country are Right to Education (RTE) compliant.

The campaign will be organised at all schools for two days.

Its objective is to take the RTE message to every school and enable the management committees and village communities to identify their requirements and ensure that they are met.

The objective of the campaign is to create awareness among people about their entitlement to free and compulsory education, said state project director, Odisha primary Education programme authority, Krishna Gopal Mohapatra.

RTE came into force last year. So far, 20 states have notified the rules. Although the act has been in force for more than a year, there is little awareness of the law and its provisions, he said.

The government has suggested constituting a state working group, discussing plan of action with large NGO networks, selection of volunteers, discussions with village communities and interventions on RTE-related complaints for the abhiyan.

School and mass education secretary Rajesh Verma simultaneously launched the state-wide Pravesh Utsav campaign at the Sri Aurobindo Upper Primary School in Gandarpur. The new students received a warm welcome to the school.

They also received free textbooks.