Office of the technical education department in Bhubaneswar. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 4: The state government is planning to get more BTech students to pursue MTech and PhD programmes in an effort to meet the dearth of quality teachers in technical education.

The department of technical education is now targeting to get at least 50 per cent of the BTech students to enrol into MTech courses.

Technical universities have been asked to open new MTech courses that might gain popularity among the students in future. The varsities have been directed to prepare a roadmap for the next three years on how to go about it.

The decision was taken in the wake of dismal enrolment figures of MTech courses in the state.

In 2013, 18,320 students enrolled for BTech programme in private engineering colleges. Of them, 16,078 students passed. At the same time, only 2,891 students enrolled for BTech in government engineering colleges. Of them, 2,261 students passed. However, only 996 students enrolled in MTech programme in private colleges and 646 students in government colleges.

It has been found that MTech seats in government colleges are only 20 per cent of the total BTech seats, and in the private colleges the MTech seats are only 5 per cent of the total BTech seats.

The ministry of human resource development has prioritised enhancement of intake in MTech courses in next five years, so that enrolment in PhD courses would increase.

Students of MTech and PhD form the source of supply for teachers in engineering colleges. Secretary of the employment and technical education training (ETET) department C.S. Kumar said: “There is a need for a pool of quality teachers for engineering courses — which is possible only if intake in MTech courses gets increased. The universities must encourage students for taking admission to MTech courses. Adequate facilities will be provided for PhD programmes to attract more students.”