Bhubaneswar, Jan. 8: The state government has decided to give weightage to girl students of rural areas for admission to junior and degree colleges from the current academic year in their respective areas.

The decision was taken by the department of higher education because of the perception that girls did not pursue higher education when they do not get a college that is closer to their home.

“In rural areas, parents are generally reluctant to send their girls to distant places for higher education. To solve this problem, the department has decided to give weightage to girl students vis-a-vis boys in rural areas. It will be ensured that they get seats in their preferred colleges of their respective blocks and are not deprived of taking up higher education,” said higher education department secretary Gagan Dhal.

“A committee will meet soon to finalise the guidelines. The revised instructions will be incorporated into the application software of Student Academic Management System,” he said, adding that from this year, e-admission had been made mandatory for junior and degree courses.

Last year, many students had to take admission in colleges which they least preferred because they did not get seats in their preferred colleges. “This resulted in a large number of students and parents visiting the department to seek transfers to their preferred colleges,” a senior official of the department said.

An abnormally high number of students had applied for college leaving certificates during 2011-12. Of the total 2,55,775 students who took admission during this session, as many as 7,905 students had applied for such certificates. Of these, only 262 students took admission in new colleges.

“The others may not have taken admission at all as they did not get the preferred colleges in their locality,” the official said.

The department is also planning to solve the crisis of huge vacancies in Plus Two colleges. Over 40,000 seats in Plus Two remained vacant this year.