Odisha chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Friday announced free education from kindergarten to postgraduate levels in all government schools and colleges.
Majhi said the decision would strengthen the foundation of the state’s youth and contribute to long-term development.
“In order to make education truly free and universal, my government is announcing to make education from KG to PG completely free of cost,” he said, underlining that the decision would benefit all students, particularly those from economically disadvantaged.
“Perhaps Odisha will become the first state in India to implement such a comprehensive free education policy,” he told a media briefing, adding that the real challenge was in providing quality education.
Neither Majhi nor senior higher education department officials provided details on the projected financial implications of the decision for the exchequer.
Odisha has 25 state universities as well as other universities under the administrative control of the state government.
Majhi said the state has already implemented the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and launched an ambitious plan to establish Godabarish Mishra Adarsha Primary Schools in every panchayat. Of the 2,200 schools planned for the first phase, foundation stones have been laid for 322. He said another 45,000 teachers would be recruited over the next three years, in addition to the 26,615 teaching and non-teaching staff already appointed.
Majhi said the previous Biju Janata Dal government hadn’t introduced meaningful reforms in the education sector and had only placed emphasis on cosmetic improvements such as repainting school buildings.
Majhi also announced the launch of Chief Minister Annapurna Yojana, under which all beneficiaries of the NFSA and SFSS schemes would receive an additional 5 kg of rice per month free of cost. As a result, every beneficiary will now receive 10 kg of rice free of charge each month. The scheme will benefit 3.28 crore beneficiaries, covering approximately 80% of the state’s population. The state government will spend ₹8,813 crore annually on this programme.
Majhi said the state government has implemented 121 schemes over the last two years, which he claimed have contributed significantly to the vision of building a prosperous Odisha. Under the Subhadra Yojana, Majhi said that assistance exceeding ₹20,600 crore has been disbursed to over 1 crore women aged 21 to 60 over the past two years. He said more than four lakh self-help groups had received bank credit worth ₹38,795 crore, while 23.5 lakh women had become “Lakhpati Didis”.
On law and order, Majhi asserted that Odisha was now free from Maoist violence and claimed significant improvements in criminal justice outcomes. The conviction rate in crimes against women, he said, had risen from 6.7 per cent in 2023 to 62 per cent by June 2025. Following the implementation of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the overall conviction rate in the state had increased to 87.6 per cent. More than 21,000 new police posts have been created to strengthen law enforcement, he added.
