Bhubaneswar, July 31: In a bid to ensure equality in educational opportunities for tribal children, chief secretary Bijay Kumar Patnaik has directed the Odisha Primary Education Programme Authority (OPEPA) to develop bilingual primers in tribal dialects for children from Class I to Class III and cover all schools with 100 per cent monolingual tribal students.

Around 544 primary schools, including 135 schools in Mayurbhanj district, 37 in Samabalpur, 67 in Sundargarh, 95 in Rayagada, 60 in Malkangiri, 30 in Keonjhar, 60 in Kandhamal and 60 in Gajapati have been taken up for this. Patnaik has directed that printing of primers and training for teachers to be speeded up.

There are about 3,400 schools with 100 per cent monolingual tribal students in these districts. A decision was taken for similar intervention in anganwadi centres of tribal dominated areas.

OPEPA was also directed to customise Arunima — a study guideline in tribal languages.

The script will be Odia, but the language will be the language of the tribe, the meeting resolved. Besides, nine new tribal languages have also been identified for inclusion in the multilingual education programme.

These languages are Gutob, Ho, Gondi, Parja, Khaira, Didayita, Chhattisgarhi Odia, Binjhal (western Odisha) and Binjhal (for Bargarh region). Primers would be developed in these languages.