Cuttack, Aug 23: The Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE) has announced significant revisions to the Plus Two syllabus, adding new units on Environmental Education and Value Education, effective from the 2025–26 academic session. The changes will see these topics integrated into the compulsory English and Mother Tongue (MIL) subjects, respectively. Students will encounter questions related to these new units in the 2026 board examinations.
According to an official notification, the revised curriculum will cover environmental concerns in the English subject and focus on ethical, cultural, and social values through literature in the MIL subject. The aim is to foster awareness and understanding of sustainability, ethics, and responsible citizenship among young learners at the higher secondary level.
Examination papers for these subjects will now include questions designed to assess students' comprehension of the new thematic areas. This overhaul is in line with the National Education Policy’s focus on holistic education and seeks to build a well-rounded educational foundation for students.
The timing of the revisions coincides with broader educational reforms in Odisha, where the state government is pushing for significant changes. In a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Friday, the Odisha government approved the merger of the Board of Secondary Education (BSE) and the CHSE into a single unified board, streamlining the administration of school education.
In the same meeting, the government also made a significant policy decision: extending the provision of free textbooks to all students in Classes IX and X, regardless of their caste, making it available to all categories. Previously, free textbooks were only provided to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe students at these levels.
Furthermore, plans have been approved to deploy B.Ed-qualified special educators as resource persons across school clusters to support differently-abled students more effectively. The State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) will be developed along the lines of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), and the Directorate of Textbook Publication and Marketing will be strengthened to ensure better distribution and quality of educational resources.
