BHUBANESWAR: The School and Mass Education Department will create three new posts of Regional Director of Education (RDE) to ensure smooth transfer of Plus Two colleges to it. The decision comes a year after separation of Plus Two and Plus Three colleges. A notification on the modalities of bifurcation of the two wings was issued on Tuesday.
The bifurcation process was implemented in 2016-17 academic session. While Plus Two came under School and Mass Education Department, Plus Three continued to remain with Higher Education Department.
However, the Government had separated the colleges only on paper to avail the annual `150 crore grants under Rashtriya Madhyamik Siksha Abhiyan (RMSA), the Centrally-sponsored flagship programme for secondary education.
The junior colleges were eligible for grants only after their bifurcation from degree colleges. Last year, the department had formed a committee to look into the modalities for the bifurcation process which submitted its report to School and Mass Education and Higher Education Departments last month.
Currently, there are 277 composite colleges (having both Plus Two and Plus Three) which will be bifurcated. There are 51 Government Plus Two colleges and 46 Plus Three colleges of which nine junior colleges are functioning on separate campus.
There are 700 colleges in the State that offer only Plus Two curriculum. It has been decided that composite colleges will continue to function from the same campus till separate infrastructure is readied. Besides, the senior most lecturer or reader in each of 277 composite colleges will act as principal of both the Plus Two and Plus Three wings.
While Higher Education Department will look into the functioning and legal issues of the composite colleges, School and Mass Education Department will take care of the job in Plus Two colleges.
The School and Mass Education Department had constituted a Directorate of Higher Secondary Education to deal with administrative and academic issues of Plus Two colleges. The directorate will now be headed by a director in the rank of Additional Secretary.