Bhubaneswar, June 2: The government today decided to set up State Institute of Open Schooling (Sios) student centres in the state's 314 blocks at a review meeting of the school and mass education department chaired by chief minister Naveen Patnaik.
The government had set up Sios centres on a pilot basis in Bhubaneswar last year to help school dropouts complete their education. These student centres are devised to help such candidates complete education till Class X and get them high school certificates through distance education. Around 2,980 candidates wrote their Class X exams through the system this year.
Many youngsters in the state fail to complete formal education due to several constraints. The student centres aim to cater to the needs of a large number of adolescent and rural youth, working men and women, SC/ST, differently-abled and other disadvantaged persons who cannot undergo formal schooling within the stipulated hours.
The government conducts admissions into these student centres twice a year - in January and July. The first batch of students who enrolled in January appeared for matriculation exams in April while those who enrol in July will write their exams in November.
The state government has asked all high schools to prepare a list of dropouts. Using the list, it will try to follow up on them and their parents and convince them to return to school.
During the review meeting, the government also decided to set up 114 more model schools by 2019 to ensure each block had one such school. The chief minister expressed his pleasure at how model schools had turned out to be an affordable alternative to ensuring quality education. He directed officials of the department to ensure that the schools had quality teachers and infrastructure, including accommodation and hostels.
He also directed the officials to recruit more Bhasha (language) teachers for tribal districts besides Telugu and Bengali teachers for bordering districts. "We have decided to spend Rs 10 lakh each to develop infrastructure at 350 high schools and Rs 2 lakh each for 300 model schools," school and mass education minister Debi Prasad Mishra said.
