Bhubaneswar, 29th Aug 2025: School children can now travel free of cost in government buses. By showing their identity cards, they will be allowed to travel without buying tickets. Through the Chief Minister Bus Service, students from Class I to Class XII will get this free travel facility. If students are in uniform and show their ID cards, their tickets will be waived. This decision has been taken by the government, informed School and Mass Education Minister Nityananda Gond to the media.
It may be noted that in yesterday’s review meeting of the School and Mass Education Department, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi took several important decisions. Especially for the qualitative improvement of primary education, path-breaking measures have been introduced.
The Board of Secondary Education and the Council of Higher Secondary Education will be merged to form a single board. SCERT will be developed on the lines of NCERT. Contractual teachers will be regularized. Free textbooks will be provided to students from Class I to Class X. Within three years, 45,000 primary teachers will be recruited, out of which 40,000 will be in newly created posts. Special emphasis will be given to providing education to tribal students in their mother tongues. A Multilingual Education Centre will be established in Koraput. Resource persons will be appointed in different clusters for children with special needs.
Amid these initiatives, the government has also decided that school students can travel free of cost in buses by showing their ID cards.