Bihar adds 18,899 seats in 75 colleges to meet growing demand
PremiumMaximum 10,200 seats have been added to the 41 colleges under Lalit Narayan Mithila University, spread across Darbhanga, Madhubani and Samastipur districts
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The Bihar government has sanctioned additional 18,899 seats in 75 colleges in a bid to enhance its gross enrolment ratio (GER) of students, said state education minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary.
“Chief minister Nitish Kumar has been consistently emphasising the need to increase GER in higher education in the state and the decision is significant in this regard. This will ensure that the students don't have to wander due to lack of seats in colleges," Choudhary said.
The seats have been enhanced to ensure the desired growth and development of higher education in the state and also to fulfil the ever-increasing demand of students, he said.
The minister added that students passing plus two (class 12) examinations would not face any problem in getting themselves admitted to a college in their own state after the decision.
Seat allocations
Maximum 10,200 seats have been added to the 41 colleges under Lalit Narayan Mithila University, spread across Darbhanga, Madhubani and Samastipur districts, followed by 4,736 seats in 19 colleges of JP University (Chapra) and 3,448 seats in 11 colleges of TM Bhagalpur University.
In four colleges of Patna University, 505 seats have been increased including 180 seats in Patna College, 260 seats in Patna Women’s college and 60 seats in Patna Science College. College of Art and Craft in Patna has also got 15 additional seats.
The sanctioned strength of teachers will also be increased in these colleges very soon, said a senior official of the Education department.
Bihar GER
This comes as the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) said that the GER in Bihar continues to be low at around 15%, compared to 27.4% at the national level in 2017-18.
Under the new education policy, the target is to take GER to 50% nationally by 2035.
In addition to this, the state also faces a major shortage of teachers in its higher education institutions, which are at present functioning at around 50% of the sanctioned strength.
“With increase in the number of seats, the sanctioned strength of teachers, which has remained unchanged for decades, will also need to be raised to maintain teacher-student ratio and the government should think in that regard," KB Sinha, the working president of the federation of university teachers association of Bihar (FUTAB), was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times.
“The appointed process should also be sped up, as by the time a new batch of teachers join, greater number retire," added Sinha.
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