Under Ministry of Education, Government of India's Samagra Shiksha initiative, secondary grade students will be able to avail facilities like transport and escort for the academic session of 2024-25. 

Project Approval Board of the Department of School Education and Literacy under the ministry gave the green signal for the same.

The districts where students will be able to avail this are:

- Deogarh

- Ganjam

- Keonjhar

- Koraput

- Malkangiri

- Nabarangpur

- Nayagarh

- Nuapada

- Rayagada

As many as 35,076 students will be able to avail this benefit and out of this number, 1,664 are of secondary grades. Rs 6,000 has been allotted per student who has 75% minimum attendance. On Thursday, July 4, the district education officers were informed about this by the  Odisha School Education Programme Authority (OSEPA).

Before this, the scheme was restricted to only those students hailing from primary and upper primary students of the schools located in hilly areas, sparsely-populated habitations and forested regions.

The scheme began in the year 2019 with the intention to offer transport allowance to students of primary and upper primary schools located in remote areas of the state of Odisha. 

Students covering more than one km to attend primary schools and over three km to reach upper primary schools could avail this benefit.