Bhubaneswar: In a historic milestone for inclusive education in Odisha, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday dedicated the State’s first-ever higher secondary school for visually-impaired and hearing-impaired students.
The Bhima Bhoi Government High School and Bipin Bihari Choudhary Government High School for the Deaf have been transformed into Bhima Bhoi Government Vocational Higher Secondary School for visually-impaired and Bipin Bihari Choudhary Government Vocational Higher Secondary School for hearing-impaired respectively.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has inaugurated both the schools here on Monday.
The initiatives will facilitate the visually-impaired and hearing-impaired children from different parts of the State to study +2 staying in hostels. Until now, these children are studying in the higher secondary schools meant for the general category children. There were no special facilities available for them.
To further motivate these students, IT and IT-services related topics will taught in vocational education. In Bhima Bhoi Government Vocational Higher Secondary School, both Arts and IT streams have been opened and at Bipin Bihari Choudhary Government Vocational Higher Secondary School, Science and IT subjects have been introduced.
The Chief Minister also inaugurated the audio studio for the visually-impaired children and the virtual studio for the hearing impaired children.
On the occasion, School and Mass Education Minister Sudam Marndi encouraged the students of both the schools.
Secretary to CM (5T) VK Pandian, Secretary of School and Mass Education Department Aswathy S., OSEPA State Project Director Anupam Saha, Khordha Collector K Sudarshan Chakravarthy and other senior officials were present on the occasion.
Notably, both the schools have been upgraded under the 5T High School Transformation Programme.