Bhubaneswar: In a major push to strengthen school education, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Thursday announced that the Odisha government will recruit 44,433 teachers over the next three years.

The move, aimed at meeting the requirements of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, is part of a broader set of reforms to transform primary education in the state.

Chairing a high-level review meeting of the School and Mass Education Department at Lok Seva Bhawan, Majhi said quality education would be the cornerstone of a “Prosperous Odisha by 2036.”

Out of the total posts, 39,366 will be new positions created to align with NEP provisions, while 5,067 will fill vacancies expected by December 2025. The government plans to recruit around 15,000 teachers each year. In another major decision, all schematic primary school teachers across the state will be regularised.

The meeting also approved the merger of the Board of Secondary Education (BSE) and the Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE) into a single board, with the aim of streamlining school education governance.

Other key measures include free textbooks for all students up to Class 10, earlier provided only up to Class 8, with limited benefits for SC/ST students in higher classes. The State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) will be upgraded on the lines of NCERT, while the Directorate of Textbook Publication and Marketing will be further strengthened.

To address student health concerns, one Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM) or multipurpose health worker will be appointed for every 300 hostel students. Meanwhile, all approvals for new private schools will now be processed through a fully online system.

Recognising the importance of inclusive education, the government has decided to appoint trained B.Ed graduates in Special Education as Resource Persons across clusters. In addition, a Multilingual Education Centre will be set up in Koraput in collaboration with SCSTRTI to promote tribal children’s education in their mother tongues.