India News | Odisha Plans to Extend Olympic Values Education Programme to 250 Schools

Bhubaneswar, Apr 2 (PTI) Odisha is all set to scale up Olympic Values Education Programme for students in 250 schools soon, an official said on Sunday.

A team of delegates led by Olympic Foundation for Culture and Heritage Director Angelita Teo met Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik during the day.

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They discussed the Olympic Values Education Programme being implemented in the state, the official said.

The programme is a practical set of resources designed to inspire and allow young people to imbibe the Olympic values of excellence, respect and friendship.

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Incidentally, Odisha was the first state to implement such a programme in India, and Patnaik launched the initiative in May 2022.

Since then 32,000 young children have been impacted by this programme which was introduced in 90 schools across Bhubaneswar and Rourkela, the official said.

"The programme is all set to scale up and impact more than 1.5 lakh school children in 250 schools in Odisha," he said, adding that it aims at disseminating a value-based curriculum to help children become active, healthy and responsible citizens.

The chief minister applauded the effort of the International Olympic Committee to promote such a programme among school students in Odisha with a focus on the values of friendship, excellence and respect.

The Olympic Foundation for Culture and Heritage will visit the OVEP-intervened schools in Bhubaneshwar on April 3 and 4, the official said.

The initiative is being implemented in collaboration with the Department of School and Mass Education in the state and the Abhinav Bindra Foundation Trust.

The delegates lauded the decision of the chief minister to support the Olympic Forest Network programme through a plantation of more than 1 million trees this year, the official said.

Patnaik, through the delegation, invited IOC President Thomas Bach to Odisha when he will come to India for the IOC session in Mumbai in October this year.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)