Bhubaneswar, July 11: Government colleges across the state are experiencing a sharp decline in the number of students opting for Plus Two this year.
More than one lakh seats are vacant in various junior colleges across the state even after three rounds of admission process. As many as 2,72,518 students took admission in the first round, 19,051 in the second and 12,735 in the third.
Of the total 4,04,059 seats, as many as 1,31,541 in 1,544 colleges are still lying vacant. The highest number of vacancies is in the science stream with 60,000 vacant seats followed by 26,378 in arts and 24,724 in commerce.
"Government colleges are in bad shape due to lack of teaching staff members, inadequate infrastructure and poor hostel facilities," said Sulagna Mohanty, a teaching faculty in one of the colleges.
Notably, 4,89,722 students passed the annual matriculation examination this year. However, only 2.72 lakh of them took admission in Plus Two, indicating that the students are gradually getting diverted towards the industrial training institutes and skill training and vocational courses.
"It was thought that the vacant seats would be filled up after the second phase online admission that was scheduled after the publication of instant and supplementary results," said higher education department official in charge of admissions Mihir Das.
Educators blamed the mushrooming of too many private colleges for the current trend. While, there are only 51 government colleges in the state, the number of self-financing colleges have gone up to 405. The demand for the private colleges has gone up as these colleges provide additional coaching for entrance exams.
This apart, these colleges have been able to lure the parents and students with their infrastructure, better hostel facilities and healthy food. While only a few self-financing colleges maintain the standards, others are often a cheap imitation of the successful institutes with poor teaching standards.
"The Plus Two CBSE books have arrived in the market as the new academic session begins on July 14," said Soumik Das, a Plus Two student of BJB Junior College.
