Bhubaneswar: The state government Thursday started the process of separating Plus II (junior) colleges from Plus III colleges.
All Plus II and Plus III colleges in Odisha will now operate from separate buildings, a joint meeting of the School and Mass Education (S&ME) and Higher Education departments decided.
The meeting also discussed division of staff and issues pertaining to land records and college infrastructure, and decided to separate the physical infrastructure of Plus II and Plus III colleges.
Special attention will be paid to college infrastructure. Classes will be held on the same campus (of Plus III college) till the process is complete.
Sahoo added that teaching and non-teaching staff of Plus II colleges will be promoted to Plus III colleges and vacancies in Plus II colleges will be filled in a phased manner. This will go for on for the next three to four years until all vacancies are filled.
Lecturers of Plus III colleges will be assigned Plus II classes till the process is complete. The decision was taken as all Plus II colleges will now come under the S&ME department.
The colleges will teach students using teaching and non-teaching staff from the Higher Education department, i.e. in case the Plus II colleges face a shortage of teaching staff, teachers from Plus III colleges will take the classes. Once everything is streamlined, senior lecturers will go back to their original posts, sources said. The meeting was also attended by S&ME Minister Samir Ranjan Das and officials of both the departments.
Das said that although some government institutions like the BJB and Ravenshaw have separate Plus II and Plus III colleges, it was decided Thursday that all institutions functioning as a single unit will be split into two.
During the next two months, a committee of Higher Education department will devise a mechanism to divide the lands of the institutions.
Earlier, Tuesday the authorities had shifted the Rama Devi Plus II College from the varsity campus to Unit IX Government Girls’ High School here.
Three acres have been demarcated on the premises of Unit-IX Government Girls’ High School and the Plus II wing will be shifted there after the new building work is built. Construction of the new building has started.