Bhubaneswar: The state government on Thursday approved a roadmap for the Centre-sponsored Sustainable Action for Transforming Human Capital (SATH) project for the next 24 months.

Odisha was selected for the project following a competitive selection process at the national level.

The meeting, presided over by chief secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi, decided the modalities for modification of the Ujjwal, Utthan and the Utkarsh schemes.

The modified Ujjwal scheme will focus on equipping students from classes I to V with basic Odia, mathematics and English skills. Utthan will focus on equipping the students of classes VI to VIII with grade-level skills in the three subjects, while Utkarsh will focus on improving the skill and knowledge base of students of Class IX.

"The state government will conduct learning camps on mission mode in all primary and upper primary classes from July 18 to 31. During this period, the entire school day will be devoted towards remediation skills. No new syllabus will be introduced," said Odisha Primary Education Programme Authority director Bhupindersingh Punia.

It was also decided that a complete orientation training of the teachers would be completed before May 5. The government imparted the orientation training to 25 experts of the State Resource Group from April 2 to 4 for this purpose. The teachers' orientation programme will be conducted at the block level from April 17 to May 5. The teachers would not be involved in any other activities during this training period.

Padhi directed the school and mass education department to focus on improving the quality of teaching learning activities in schools and learning outcomes of students. Development commissioner R. Balakrishnan advised the department officials to improve educational administration at district and block level and make it more facilitating for the teachers and the students.

School and mass education secretary P.K. Mohapatra said the recruitment process for 14,000 elementary teachers was complete. The newly recruited teachers were expected to take up their duties in April.

During the meeting, it was also decided to develop an online data driven teacher-student rationalisation system and to initiate the process for recruitment of secondary teachers according to requirement.