Bhubaneswar, Nov 22 (IANS): Following a strong protest by the opposition in the Odisha Assembly, the state government revised its decision on the merger of schools in scheduled areas of the state.

It has been decided to merge schools with student strength of less than 15, informed School and Mass Education Minister Sameer Ranjan Dash to media persons on Sunday.

The number of such schools in the state will be around 3,000, Dash added.

Earlier, the government had decided that schools with enrolment of less than 25 will be merged with other nearby schools.

"The merger of schools with students' strength below 20 in non-scheduled areas and below 15 in scheduled areas will continue. Natural barriers will be taken into consideration," he added.

The Minister gave a reply in the House on Sunday on the proposal of the state government for the merger of the schools.

The Minister said that it is not the intention of the government to close any school arbitrarily.

The merger of small schools with others will create a good academic environment and lead to quality education, he added.

"We demand that the government should set a minimum of 15 students as its norms for schedule areas and KBK areas for the merger. Despite our demands to include KBK, the Minister did not mention it. We will raise the issue again in the House if KBK is not included," said Narasingh Mishra, Congress legislature party leader.