Under the Odisha Aadarsha Vidyalaya programme, 11 model schools will start functioning in Ganjam district from the next academic session.
“We are targeting to start 15 model schools from the next academic session. Since construction of buildings of 11 schools is over, we are ready to start the schools. Construction of other four school buildings is going on,” said District Education Officer (Ganjam) Sanatan Panda, according to PTI.
Panda revealed that the state government has decided to construct one model school in each of the 22 blocks in the district.
While the government will construct 17 schools, Tata Steel will set up the rest five, officials said. Out of 17 government schools, 11 have been completed and four are under construction. Construction of the two other school buildings in Chhatrapur and Ganjam blocks are yet to be started due to delay in selection of land.
Last year on October 5, 2015, the Odisha government had said that 100 model schools would start functioning from the academic session (2016-17) in the state.
The model schools, meant to impart education from Class 1 to Class 12, were to be at par with the central government-run Kendriya Vidyalaya (KV), the Chief Minister’s Office had then said in a statement.
It added that vocational courses would also be a major part of the curriculum. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had directed officials to expedite the construction of buildings and other infrastructural works to ensure that education is imparted in the model schools from the 2016-17 academic session.