Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has directed officials to take initiatives to provide free textbooks to students in Government schools from beginning of the academic year from next year.
While reviewing textbook supply at State Secretariat here, Patnaik was informed by officials that free text books were provided to students in schools by July 15 for this academic year.
School & Mass Education Minister Debi Prasad Mishra, Higher Education Minister Pradeep Panigrahy, Chief Secretary AP Padhi, Development Commissioner R Balakrishnan and Higher Education and School & Mass Education Principal Secretary GVV Sarma were among those present at the meeting.
Around 54,81,655 students have been provided 2,86,97,177 textbooks on the basis of their requirement in the academic year 2016-17, they said, adding free textbooks in 21 tribal languages have also been provided to 1.22 lakh tribal students in 2,500 schools of 17 districts in the State.
Odisha is the only State where tribal students are imparted education in their mother tongues.
According to the officials, free textbooks have also been provided to the students residing outside Odisha.
This year, 99,574 Odia textbooks have been distributed for Odia students living in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Maharashtra and West Bengal, they said, adding that a total 2,611 books in Braille language has been provided to visually-impaired students.
They said as the government has decided to switch to the CBSE pattern in plus two level, as many as 3,55,976 text books of different subjects in that pattern have been provided to students.
Meanwhile, the Government has decided to provide text books of commerce, geography, Sanskrit, Odia and alternative English within a week, the sources said.