Odisha to open coaching centres for competitive exams

The Odisha government has decided to open three coaching institutes in the state to provide quality coaching to youths preparing for all-India competitive examinations.

This decision has been taken following poor results of students from Odisha in all-India level examinations.

The government will open the coaching institutes under the Odisha State Employment Mission (OSEM) to provide coaching facilities to the students for various competitive examinations and recruitment to the armed forces, said the minutes of the meeting of employment and technical education and training department of the government.

However, the department has decided to open one institute in Bhubaneswar, the location for other two institutes is yet to be decided, said a senior official of the department.

The meeting has also decided to upgrade all the district employment exchanges into career counselling centres in a phased manner.

The performance of Odisha is very poor in terms of competitive examinations as only 20 aspirants from the state cracked the civil service exams this year.

Of the 46,096 students who took the JEE test this year, only 3,202 (6.95 percent) have qualified for the JEE Advanced. This is much lower compared to Andhra Pradesh with 18.6 percent and Delhi with 19 percent.

However, Higher Education Minister Pradeep Panigrahi said the government will restructure the syllabus to bring it at par with the national standard.

The minister said: "We are taking steps for restructuring syllabus besides upgrading infrastructure in higher education. We are also planning to integrate preparation for competitive examinations with regular course of studies."