Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Dec 14: With Orissa not being allowed to avail of Central funds under Rashtriya Madhyamik Sikshya Abhiyan (RMSA), the state government is considering excluding Plus Two from the ambit of the higher education department.
“Plus Two comes under the higher education department but we are deprived of around `100 crore every year under RMSA of the ministry of human resource development (MHRD). So, the state government has been planning to implement the notification to separate Plus Two, floated in 1998,” higher education additional secretary Durga Prasad Behera told Orissa POST.
The government had planned to shift Plus Two to school and mass education department by creating a separate directorate, Behera said. A fully administrative directorate on the lines of the directorate of higher education (DHE) will be created and all junior colleges will be separated from Plus Three colleges across the state, said the official adding as everything of the Plus Two colleges need to be changed, it will take some more time.
In 2009, a higher education task force, constituted by the DHE, had recommended separating Plus Two education from degree colleges. It was proposed that the Plus Two stream will be kept under school and mass education department with the council of higher secondary education preparing the curricula and conducting the examinations. The step was aimed at enabling universities and colleges to concentrate on higher education and pursue teaching and research.
Sources said although the process of separation of Plus Two education from degree colleges had begun in some government colleges, it had to be stopped midway. Vacancies apart, many colleges lack adequate infrastructure.
