As many as 966 primary schools in Odisha where the student’s strength is less than ten in the current year will be closed down.
Odisha school and mass education minister Sameer Ranjan Dash said the students of these schools would be adjusted in the nearby schools. The minister said the students would be given conveyance allowance if the distance of the school in which they would be adjusted is more than one km.
Dash said the allowance would be given for a period of ten months in a year as the schools would remain closed for summer vacation for two months.
He said the allowance would be given to students calculating their attendance in the school.
The minister said a student would be eligible to get Rs.300 per month if the attendance in the schools is within 30 to 49 per cent, Rs.400 if the attendance is within 50 to 74 per cent and Rs.500 per month if the attendance was more than 75 per cent.
No transport allowances would be given to the students if the attendance was less than 30 per cent.
The minister said the money would be transferred to the accounts of the parents of the student directly.The teachers of the schools identified to be closed would be transferred to schools where there was a shortage of teachers, he said.
