Educational Institutions in Odisha Likely to Open in January 2021; Check Details Here

Samir Ranjan Dash, Minister of School and Mass Education has announced that schools and colleges in Odisha are likely to open from January 2021. Educational institutes in the state of Odisha have been shut for nearly 9 months.

Mr. Dash said that classes for grade 10 and 12 students will definitely open. Decisions regarding the opening for other standards will be taken upon discussion with the Odisha government.

In a statement, Dash said, “Priority will be given to reopen classes for 10 and 12 students in the first phase. Except for festival holidays, classes will be held on Saturdays and Sundays. Exams will be held after conduct of physical classes for at least 100 days. In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, each student will be provided with a question bank for preparation of the exams,”

Since students were under a lot of pressure regarding their exams, Dash said that they would be provided with special study material. This was being done to help the students prepare and make them feel more confident about the exams.

Adding to Dash, Saswat Mishra, Higher Education Secretary said that around 6 lakhs students will appear for board examinations. He is also hopeful that classes for colleges in Odisha could be reported in January 2021.

The final decision for reopening of colleges will be taken by the state government after proper consideration of the pandemic situation. While Mishra was optimistic regarding the opening of colleges, he said that the examinations will only be held after classes will be started physically.

On December 7, the Higher Education Department had written to various Universities and Colleges regarding examinations. They were instructed to not conduct any examination till physical classes were resumed.

Mishra said that the academic calendar of educational institutes might be gifted by 2 or 3 months. He said that they were confident that colleges will be able to complete the syllabus in the next 2-3 months. However, according to him, any further delay in reopening of colleges will affect the syllabus completion.