Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has directed to provide free textbooks to the students of private and unaided Odia medium schools of the State like the students of government schools. This scheme has been taken up under the 5T initiative.
This scheme will be implemented from the next academic year 2024-25. The state government will provide free textbooks to students from Class I to VIII. This will benefit more than 5 lakh students of 3620 private and unaided schools in the state. For this, the state government will spend Rs 9.43 crore annually.
It is worthwhile to mention here that children studying in private Odia medium schools have been performing well in the annual High School Certificate Examinations and have also demonstrated their skills in various fields. The state government has been providing free textbooks to students of all government schools in the state and also providing free textbooks to Odia children in states like West Bengal, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat.
