Bhubaneswar: The Sishu Vatika admission at primary schools in Odisha will begin from next academic session, informed School & Mass Education Minister Nityananda Gond today. 

Under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, the Sishu Vatika admission will be opened for children at age of 3 years. The system will be implemented at 45,000 primary schools from upcoming academic session, the Minister said.  

He said that the department is all prepared for execution of Sishu Vatika programme in schools. 

On allocation made for elementary education in Odisha Budget-2025, he said that the state government has provisioned over Rs 31,000 Crore for school education. 

Chief Minister Mohan Majhi in his speech during presentation of the annual budget on Monday said that the state government has decided to roll out NEP-2020 from the academic session 2025-26. More than 45,000 primary classes called Sishu Vatika will be opened in all primary schools.  

As per reports, there will be Sishu Vatika education under NEP that will cover 5 years (Sishu Vatika 1,2,3, Class 1 and 2 and Middle and Secondary stages (Class 4,5,6,7,8) in schools. While Class 4 and 5 comes under preparatory stage, Class 6,7,8 have been classified under Middle stage. The minimum age for admission into Class 1 will be 6 years and Sishu Vatika at 3 years. 

This apart, the BJP government in its second annual budget proposed to provide Rs 2960 crore under Godabarisha Mishra Adarsha Prathamik Vidyalaya, which is an ambitious initiative of the government to establish holistic learning centres at Panchayat level. Under the scheme, around 7,000 elementary schools will be upgraded and equipped with advanced infrastructure, learning resources and life skills education to develop children's linguistic and arithmetic skills, preparing them for higher education.