Minister for Employment and Technical Education and Training Pratap Keshari Deb on Monday announced an increase in reservation of seats for women in co-education government engineering schools and polytechnics to 30 per cent from 2013-14 academic session. Earlier, 15 per cent of seats was reserved for women in these institutes.
Deb also said four women’s polytechnic institutes have been converted into co-education institutes. It was found that many courses in these institutes had less takers and the courses were on the verge of being closed down. Department of Technical Education and Training (DTET) has also taken the decision to introduce more demanding branches in these institutes so that both boys and girls can opt for them.
“Courses like modern office management and IT were losing popularity. If we introduce courses like civil, mechanical and manufacturing, both boys and girls can apply to these diploma schools,” said DTET Deputy Director Gyana Ranjan Ray. There are 12 government engineering schools and 87 private polytechnic institutes across the State.
Now there are four all-women diploma engineer schools including Government Polytechnic, Bhubaneswar; SK Dav Polytechnic for Women, Rourkela; Government Polytechnic, Berhampur and Government Polytechnic at Dhenkanal.
Another problem with the women polytechnics is that many companies shy away from recruiting there. “We have seen in the past that companies prefer recruiting from co-education colleges. Very few companies recruit from women institutions,” informed Ray. They have found increasing participation of girls in courses like civil, mechanical and manufacturing.
DTET had, in fact, started admitting boys into the women’s institutes after the State Government issued an NOC for the same.
They had to take the step of completely converting the four institutes into co-education institutes as some boys complained of having problem with the certificates.
Meanwhile, responding to the request by the Odisha Private Engineering Schools’ Association (OPESA) to extend the last date for submitting forms for Diploma Entrance Test (DET), DTET has fixed the final date on March 23. The last date for offline filling has been extended to March 25.