Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has formally requested the Jharkhand government to republish the Odia language syllabus for the upcoming Jharkhand Teacher Eligibility Test (JHTET) 2026 in its original Odia script, instead of the Devanagari script currently used.
In an official letter to the Jharkhand Academic Council (JAC), the JHTET conducting body, Commissioner-cum-Secretary of Odia Language, Literature and Culture Department, described the publication of the Odia syllabus in Devanagari as “highly regretful.”
The letter emphasized that Odia possesses its own distinct script and holds the status of one of the 22 Scheduled Languages under the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution. It is also among the 11 classical languages recognized by the country. She urged the Council to reissue the syllabus in the native Odia script, citing the Bengali syllabus, which was correctly published in its own script, as a precedent.
The letter further called upon the Jharkhand government to accord Odia the same respect and treatment as other Scheduled Languages.
The issue came to light following a representation submitted by Nandu Kumar Pandey from Jharkhand’s Saraikela-Kharsawan district and other concerned individuals to Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi. The representation demanded immediate republication of the Odia syllabus in the Odia script, inclusion of appropriate prose and poetry passages in the subject, issuance of model question papers in Odia script, in line with practices followed for other languages
