Orissa acquired the status of a separate State on April 1, 1936. Oriyas were believed to be tradition-bound and were quite apathetic to receive the liberal education introduced during the British Rule. However, in pro-independence days, like other states, it also participated in the race and witnessed a massive quantitative expansion in its education system to get a separate position in the education movement of India. This is now being enhanced by the Government of India with due attention towards the primary and secondary education. The importance of higher education and professional courses are well understood in the today’s scenario by the students, parents and as a whole by the society, which is reflected in their performance and interests.
In the early 1900s, the people in Orissa were not ready to embrace the British education that was being forced upon them. Education was not considered a priority throughout the state.
Orissa was one of the last Indian territories to come under the British rule and therefore was exposed much later to the liberal education introduced by them. At the same time, Orissa has always made concerted efforts to provide quality education to all. Prospects of a brighter future are evidently in the offing in view of certain major initiatives of the Government of Orissa and the Government of India. The below mentioned numerical data of various institutes in the state throws some light about the recent educational status.
Orissa is home to number of reputed Universities, General colleges, Medical , Engineering , Management schools, Ayurvedic, Homeopathic, Law, Dance & Music Colleges, B.E.D training Centers, C.T. and Hindi training Centers.. There are nine universities here and over a thousand schools of secondary education. The federal government has not provided Orissa with any prominent colleges or universities. However, private investments are making possible the opening of Vendata University. It is being modeled after American Ivy League schools such as Harvard and Stanford. It will cost over three billion dollars to complete. When it opens, it will be home to over a hundred thousand students and twenty thousand faculty members. This will make it one of the largest universities in the world.
Leading institutions like Xavier Institute of Business Management, Utkal Univrsity, National Institute of Technology-Rourkela, Biju Pattnaik University of Technology, Kalinga Institute of Technology, S C B Medical College, Cuttack, V S S Medical College & Hospital, Burla and Indian Institute of Mass Communication(IIMC), have acquired significant status in national level. Students who have passed out of these institutes have excelled in the professional fields and become authorities on their subjects.
The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)'s state unit , and the Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) in the state capital, Bhubaneswar are also in progress.Recently, Reliance industries has also expressed its intention of establishing a new Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology (DA-IICT), and a health city for medical education and research in Bhubaneswar.
The premier education institute like IIT Kharagpur also plans to establish a full-fledged 300 acre campus 30 km away from Bhubaneswar for 5,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students. The Ministry of Human Resources Development has also announced its intention to set up another IIT in Orissa.
Also being built in Orissa is the National Institute of Science Education and Research which is located in Bhubaneswar. It will have a focus not only on education, but becoming a top research facility.
Recently the ruins of a university were found in Orissa. This university, Ratnagiri, was one of the oldest universities in the world. Ratnagiri was a major university which hosted students from China, Greece and Persia. The university was also considered one of the centers for Buddhist education.
Orissa is also unique in the sense that one fourth of its population belongs to indigenous tribes and do not receive a traditional education.
