Bhubaneswar: The state government will roll out two programmes to improve the elementary students' learning levels.

The learning enhancement programmes - Ujjwal for classes I-V and Utthan for classes VI-VIII - will be used to enhance the learning outcomes and standard appropriate competences.

The programmes to be launched by the Odisha Primary Education Programme Authority will hit the ground as soon as the school reopens after the summer vacation. The programmes have the potential to substantially impact the statewide learning outcomes and will benefit over 40 lakh students across the state.

According to reports, the state has been preparing for these programmes for the past few months, and for this, teacher training exercise had been conducted in April, when approximately 1.41 lakh teachers took part in the programme. The authorities have designed special workbooks and distributed those to all the schools for implementation of Ujjwal and Utthan programmes. "We have also engaged the State Council of Educational Research and Training experts, who will conduct an impact assessment study for the programmes and submit their report and findings," said the authority's project director B.S. Poonia.

Both Ujjwal and Utthan will be launched in two phases. While phase one will run from June 18 to July 31 wherein only remediation classes will operate and no regular syllabus will be taught, the phase two will run from August 1. In the second phase, the teachers will have to undertake remediation class for one period every day at primary level and three hours every Monday at the secondary level, said the release.

"We expect the programmes to significantly improve the leaning outcomes to help students, who are behind their grade level, and those, who are at the grade level," he said.

The school and mass education department has also joined hands with Lend-A-Hand India for better implementation of vocational education in the state. It will provide project management and technical support to the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan in implementing vocational education at secondary and higher secondary levels.

In the state, vocational education has been given the status of the third language and about 25,500 students are pursuing vocational education in schools. "The objective of the agreement is to provide world-class facilities to the students in the vocational education in the secondary school level. Besides, it will ensure quality education to students and develop their skill and make them employable," said Poonia.