Bhubaneswar, July 26: Promoters of private junior colleges in the state are having a tough time handling the huge vacancies even as the second selection list for Plus Two colleges is to be published tomorrow.
While there are only 51 government colleges, the number of self-financing colleges in the state has gone up to 405.
This year many private Plus Two colleges have been left with more than 70 per cent vacant seats after the completion of the first phase of admission in the first week of July.
Around 35 colleges reported zero admissions and failed to attract even a single student.
Some of these colleges are North Odisha (Junior) College, Sri Sri Dhabaleswar (Junior) College, Sabitri Devi (Junior) College of Science, Mahanadi (Junior) Science College, AIMS Plus Two Science and Commerce College, RK Plus Two Science College and Dhenkanal Evening (Junior) College. In Bhubaneswar, colleges with zero enrolment are Draupadi College of Science & Commerce, Pragati Prafulla Plus Two College of Science, Commerce & Arts, Narayana Junior College and East Plus Two Science College.
Similarly, 50 odd colleges, a majority of them from Ganjam and Khurda districts managed only single digit admissions. "As many as 15 colleges in Ganjam and 20 colleges in Khurda have less then five admissions," said a senior official dealing with e-admissions. Of the total 1,560 junior colleges, 371 are self-financing colleges and a majority of these self-financing colleges are located in Khurda, Ganjam, Balasore and Cuttack.
The Council of Higher Secondary Education had recently urged students to select the colleges considering availability of infrastructure and teachers. It had also uploaded on its website a list of colleges that are lacking required infrastructure.
"The second phase of admission will continue from tomorrow to July 30. We are quite hopeful that some of the seats will be filled up," said the official.
As many as 4,89,722 students passed the annual matriculation examination conducted by the Board of Secondary Education this year. However, only 2.72 lakh students have taken admission in Plus Two.
Some believe that it is because the students are gradually getting diverted to ITIs, diploma, skill training and vocational courses instead of regular Plus Two courses, others have , others have blamed it on the mushrooming of far too many private colleges.
