Bhubaneswar: Opposition Congress and BJP members staged a walkout in the Odisha Assembly Friday, alleging that the state government has failed to provide quality education to the students.
They also alleged that the future of the students is pushed to the dark in the name of transformation of schools under 5T initiatives.
Participating in a debate on the admissibility of an adjournment motion, the opposition members said the teacher-student ratio is low and there is no required number of classrooms for the students to read.
Opposition Chief Whip Mohan Charan Majhi said several schools do not have adequate teachers and class rooms. The dropout rate in the state is 27.30 per cent against the national average of 12.3 percent.
Congress Legislature party leader Narasingha Mishra said good teachers are not joining the government as the government is not paying them well.
His party colleague Santosh Singh Saluja said the dropout rate in the state has increased after the implementation of school transformation.
Mukesh Mahaling of BJP also slammed the government for its failure to provide quality education to students.
Replying to the debate, School and Mass Education Minister Samir Ranjan Dash said after the implementation of the school transformation programme, the state figured in the top ten list of the country as per the Performance Grading Index report of the Union government.
Dash said 95.71 percent of the students have cleared the Class X examination conducted by CBSE out of which 1,052 have secured around 90 percent marks.
Following the transformation of schools, the number of students in private schools have dropped by around 2 lakhs in 2021–22 in comparison to 2019–20.
He said a decision has been taken for recruitment of 51,535 teachers at a cost of Rs 1,045 crore during 2023–24.
The government, he said, has constituted six task forces for the sustainability school transformations, adding that the programmes are being taken up on the basis of the report of the task force.
The minister said the government has planned to introduce ‘School Clubs’ in all secondary schools of Odisha from the academic year 2023-24. The clubs will supplement the newly introduced aspirational curriculum of the state government and help students by providing personalized learning experiences.
The introduction of the club system will also offer a platform for students to pursue their interests and hobbies beyond the classroom, he said.
However, the Opposition BJP and the Congress members expressing their displeasure over the minister’s reply walked out of the house.
UNI