Bhubaneswar: The Opposition on Thursday targeted the state government on the alleged deterioration in standard of education in the state. Opposition members alleged that the standard of education had nosedived in Odisha due to a lack of a clear-cut policy and large-scale vacancies in colleges.

Initiating an adjournment motion on the deterioration of educational standard in the Assembly, leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra said: "As the standard of higher education has deteriorated, the state is unable to produce meritorious students who can compete at all-India level. The students are not able to produce good results."

He said: "At the university level, some 405 posts are lying vacant out of 986 posts. Even recruitment at the college level is not going on properly. The education system has totally collapsed here."

Making a scathing attack on the government, Mishra said: "When the education system has collapsed, the chief minister is getting award for best administration."

Congress MLA Tara Prasad Bahinipati said: "The state is yet to rise to the occasion as the education system has collapsed."

The BJP too criticised the state government's alleged failure to improve the education system.

Responding to the attack, higher education minister Ananta Das said: "Steps are being taken to improve the education system. The student-teacher ratio here is much better compared to other states. The ratio here is at par with the national level."

He said while the student-teacher ratio was 26:1 in Odisha, it was 70:1 in Bihar, 61:1 in Jharkhand, 57:1 in Delhi and 42:1 in Uttar Pradesh. Das said: "Steps are also being taken to fill up the vacancies. Some 320 new lecturers' posts have been created at government colleges and these will be filled up soon."

Similarly, Rs 60 crore has been allotted for the development of infrastructure at university level and Rs 4.88 crore has been earmarked for overall development of education system. The government has also allocated Rs 80 crore for the infrastructure development of government colleges, Rs 4.80 crore for the development of laboratories and Rs 7 crore for the development of its education system, he said.

Das, however, admitted that there were no professors in the Odia language department at Utkal University, Fakir Mohan University, Gangadhar Meher University, Ravenshaw University and Rama Devi Women's University.