BHUBANESWAR: There will no bifurcation of Plus Two and Plus Three colleges in the new academic session.
Even as the Higher Education Department was confident of going ahead with the process in 2015-16, it has now decided to postpone it till 2016-17 academic session as many formalities are yet to be completed.
Most importantly, the department has not formed the committee, as specified by the State Government, that would look into the modalities for bifurcation of Plus Two and Plus Three. In February, the State Government had asked the department to form a committee, comprising officials of School and Mass Education Department, Council of Higher Secondary Education and Directorate of Higher Education, that will prepare a roadmap for the bifurcation.
Besides, though the academic session will begin in July, a separate directorate for Higher Secondary Education under the School and Mass Education Department has not been created for managing the affairs of all the 1436 Plus Two colleges.
Currently, there are 255 colleges, which offer teaching in both Plus Two and Plus Three courses on the same campus. As the Plus Two colleges are under the governance of the Higher Education Department, the Government is unable to avail grants of `100 crore under Rashtriya Madhyamik Siksha Abhiyan (RMSA) that is sanctioned by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) every year.
Junior colleges will be eligible for the grants only when they are dissociated from the degree colleges.Higher Education Minister Pradeep Panigrahy said as teacher vacancies have not been filled up and separate laboratories not created, bifurcation will affect teaching in Plus Two colleges.
Meanwhile, teachers of colleges that offer both Plus Two and Plus Three have threatened of agitation if they are brought under the Plus Two wing as this would make them ineligible for UGC scale and reduce their Grade pay. They want to continue as teachers of both Plus Two and Plus Three colleges. The Minister said the demands of teachers and colleges will be considered
before the bifurcation process.