Bhubaneswar, Oct 15 (IANS): The Odisha government has decided to resume offline classes for Class 11 and Class 8 students from October 21 and 25 respectively, State school and mass education minister Samir Ranjan Dash, said on Friday.

"Following the direction of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, we have decided to start the physical teaching for Class 11 students from October 21. Similarly, a decision has been taken to resume the physical mode teaching for Class 8 students from October 25," said Dash.

"A meeting will be held tomorrow (October 16) with all district education officers (DEOs) of the state in this regard and instructions will be issued to initiate preparations for the commencement of classes for Class 8 and 11 students," he said.

Dash also said the classes will be conducted at usual timing and a detailed programme will be released by his department soon.

When asked about the plan to resume physical classes for students of Class 1 to 7, the minister said, "The department will take a decision in this regard at a later stage. The state government has already resumed physical classes for the Class 9, 10 and 12 students."