Saralnama
The Odisha government has approved merging the Board of Secondary Education (BSE) and the Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE) into a single unified board, as announced in a high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi. The government will now provide free textbooks to all students in Classes IX and X, expanding the previous benefit that was limited to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe students, while free textbooks continue up to Class VIII. To address student health, Auxiliary Nurse Midwives will be deployed in hostels at a ratio of one per 300 students. Approvals for new private schools will be processed entirely online. Emphasizing mother tongue education for tribal students, a Multilingual Education Centre will be established in Koraput with support from the SC & ST Research and Training Institute. For inclusive education, trained special educators will be appointed as resource persons for differently-abled children. The State Council of Educational Research and Training will be developed on the lines of NCERT, and the Directorate of Textbook Publication and Marketing will be strengthened. The meeting included senior officials such as the School and Mass Education Minister and Chief Secretary. (Updated 22 Aug 2025, 07:33 IST; source: link)