Bhubaneswar, July 22: The government’s plan to separate Plus Two courses from degree colleges has been kept in abeyance because of large-scale vacancies and inadequate infrastructure in state-run colleges.

In 2011, the government had decided to separate Plus Two courses from degree colleges in accordance with recommendations made by a task force.

“The higher education department has purposefully decided to delay the separation because of vacancies and lack of infrastructure. The department is not going ahead with the plan until it is comfortable with the staffing position at both levels. Unless we have the adequate infrastructure in place, it will be difficult for us to provide quality education,” said higher education secretary Aparajita Sarangi.

The department had tried to conduct an infrastructure assessment survey following the decision. The survey was done to assess teacher vacancies and existence of basic infrastructure facilities such as classrooms, laboratories and libraries among others.

At present, the state has a total of 2,528 colleges, which include 99 government colleges, 617 aided colleges, 1,000 unaided colleges, 165 block grant colleges, 344 self-financing colleges and 32 other departmental colleges.

In fact, the process of separation of the Plus Two stream from the degree colleges had already begun, but had to be stopped midway.

About 50 government colleges were ready to separate the junior colleges from the ambit of higher education after receiving the survey report, said sources.

Out of some 1,818 sanctioned posts in the government degree colleges, 612 are lying vacant.

Similarly, 279 posts are lying vacant in the junior government colleges having 1,023 sanctioned posts. In its recommendations, the task force constituted by the higher education department had said that Plus Two classes needed to be separated from degree colleges.

This step would enable universities and colleges to concentrate on higher education and pursue teaching and research only, it had recommended.