Bhubaneswar: The higher education department has issued a directive to all government schools of the state to write their respective names in Odia.

The department on Thursday issued the letter to the heads of all the schools - including primary, upper primary, nodal upper primary and higher secondary ones. The nameplate has to be in terracotta colour on which the letters will have to be engraved in white.

This apart, the year of establishment of the school and the classes in which education is imparted will also have to be mentioned clearly.

The schools can retain their name in English. But the display in Odia should also be prominent.

"Since Odia is our mother tongue, it should be a matter of pride for the educational institutions to use their nameplates in Odia," said school and mass education minister Badri Narayan Patra.

The higher education department will also contact the representatives of all the schools, asking them to act on the directive at the earliest. An awareness drive will be conducted to sensitise the principals and school managing committees.

In May this year, the state Assembly passed the Odisha Shops and Commercial Establishments (Amendment) Bill, 2018, to make Odia mandatory on signboards of all shops and business establishments in the state.