Bhubaneswar, July 04: The second State Task Force meeting on the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 convened at the Lokseva Bhawan under the chairpersonship of Anu Garg, Development Commissioner. The meeting aimed to review the coordinated progress made across various departments in Odisha towards the systemic rollout of NEP 2020.
Sanjeeb Ku Mishra, Principal Secretary, Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes Development, Minority & Backward Classes Welfare, Shalini Pandit, School and Mass Education Secretary, Bhupendra Singh Poonia, Skill Development & Technical Education Secretary, and other senior officials from the Higher Education, Women and Child Development, Planning & Convergence, Directorate of Teacher Education & SCERT, and OSEPA, along with representatives of partner organizations, actively participated in the meeting.
Garg focused on outcome-based strategies, the establishment of an IT-enabled monitoring system, and promotion of Multilingual Education (MLE).
The State Task Force on the implementation of NEP 2020 in Odisha highlighted several key initiatives during its recent meeting. Collaborative training programs for teachers involved in the Shishu Vatikas were successfully conducted with support from NCERT and RIE Bhubaneswar, accompanied by the development and state-wide distribution of new workbooks and teacher’s handbooks. The Directorate of Teacher Education and the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) are being strengthened to expand their roles in curriculum development, textbook preparation, and teacher training from Shishu Vatika (pre-primary) to Class XII, in alignment with NCERT guidelines.
Additionally, a special house-to-house survey campaign launched in May 2025 aims to identify school dropouts, children with special needs (CwSN), and assess multilingual education (MLE) requirements to prevent dropouts and re-engage out-of-school children as per NEP 2020 mandates. Furthermore, the introduction of the Holistic Progress Card (HPC) for students from Class I to VIII in the 2024-25 academic years focuses on evaluating creativity, critical thinking, and life skills. To ensure continuous support and data-driven decision-making, the DC-cum-Additional Chief Secretary emphasized the need to develop an IT-enabled monitoring system to track each child’s progress from Shishu Vatika to Class XII.
Odisha has made significant strides in foundational education, establishing over 45,000 pre-primary Shishu Vatika classrooms and implementing initiatives such as the “Sikhayan Sopan” Assessment Register and technology-enabled learning through platforms like the e-Jaadui Pitara app along with Teaching Learning Materials, teacher handbooks and workbooks. The state also promotes flagship schemes including PM SHRI and the Godabarisha Mishra Adarsha Prathamik Vidyalaya model schools.
