In a bid to standardize education and curb rising costs, Nityananda Gond, the school and mass education minister of Odisha, announced that private schools in the state must exclusively use NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) books. This decision comes amid allegations that some private institutions were mandating expensive textbooks from specific publishers, leading to unnecessary financial burdens on parents. Gond emphasized that charging excessive fees for educational materials will not be tolerated, and strict actions will be taken against violators. Under the National Education Policy-2020, the state government is revising the curriculum and producing new textbooks. Currently, about 50% of students have received the updated materials, with the remainder expected to receive them during the summer vacation. By the 2026-27 academic year, the government plans to introduce 55 new textbooks for classes 1 to 8, contextualized to reflect Odisha's culture and heritage.