Bhubaneswar, May 12: The state government will prescribe books for all Plus Two subjects in all streams from the current academic session.
The decision has been taken to help students to perform better in competitive and national-level entrance examinations.
Till now, students followed books approved by the Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE). However, from this year onwards, all the books will be prescribed for every subject in all the streams - science, arts, commerce and vocational courses.
Chairman of CHSE Sundarlal Seal said: "The students of Class XI and Class XII under various boards follow books that are prescribed by the respective boards. These books are based on the national-level examinations conducted across the country."
He further said that questions for the next year's Plus Two examination would only be from the books prescribed by senior Plus Two teachers and subject experts from across the state.
"The prescribed books will make it easier for the students to prepare for competitive exams such as JEE, CAT, MAT, XAT and other competitive jobs," Seal said.
Last year, the academic council committee of CHSE had approved the new syllabus for Plus Two.
The new syllabus, which came to effect from the 2016-17 academic session, has been designed on the lines of the Central Bureau of Secondary Education (CBSE) syllabus.
Last year's audit revealed that the quality of state higher secondary education was far below than that of the CBSE or the ICSE. The department was also asked to provide an explanation on the "poor" performance of the state board.
Since the past few years, the number of students scoring above 90 per cent in the Plus Two examination has been very low. While last year it was 53, it dropped to 27 this year.
" Odisha students fail to get seats in most colleges of Delhi University and other top universities of the country where the cut-off is 95 per cent and above. I feel the step to prescribe books will be helpful for the students to score better marks," said educationist Chittaranjan Mishra.
