Bhubaneswar, April 7: The state government today launched Ujjwal, an initiative aimed to help enhance the overall development of children in the elementary schools of Odisha.

Much alike the model schools inaugurated earlier this week, the Ujjwal scheme also aims to attain basic competencies in language and arithmetic, including written and spoken English. The focus will also be on good values and conduct of the students.

Last month, school and mass education minister Debi Prasad Mishra had informed the Assembly that private and government schools in urban centres were going almost neck and neck so far enrolment of students in the primary level was concerned.

Of the 8,13,708 students enrolled in primary schools located in towns, private schools attracted 4,02,754 students as compared to 4,10,954 in government schools. However, the students enrolled in private schools in towns of 10 districts have now outnumbered their counterparts in government institutes.

"The aim is to improve and ensure that the quality of education in schools and enhance the overall development of children," said chief minister Naveen Patnaik, announcing the scheme at Rajdhani Primary School, Unit-I here.

Ujjwal will ensure the children's improved learning outcomes, which will be assessed through concurrent evaluation of students twice a year in September and April.

"There are around 6,300 education officers, who can closely supervise the functioning of 12,612 schools," Mishra said.

According to the programme, each school will have one dedicated teacher to address the needs of students, who lack competencies in English, Odia and mathematics. Those lagging behind will be made part of a separate group, and it shall be the responsibility of the dedicated teacher to conduct remedial classes to help them. A separate register will be maintained and the periodic progress of the students in this group will be recorded on daily basis.

Besides, the teachers' performances will also be monitored following specific indicators set by the National Council of Education Research and Training, the national academic authority. A community diary to maintain the academic calendar was also launched to be distributed among all school management committee members. Welcome kits consisting of school bags, pictorial story books, notebooks, pencils and erasers were also distributed to the students of classes I, II and III.