BHUBANESWAR: At a time when the State government is focusing on improving teaching standards and quality of education in its schools and colleges, the Economic Survey 2021 tabled in the Parliament on Friday revealed that Odisha, as of 2018-19 fiscal, has one of the lowest numbers of recognised teacher training institutes among all major states.
Among 13 major states, Odisha has the third lowest number of teacher training institutes after Bihar and Punjab. The State has only 65 institutes compared to 959 in Maharashtra, 406 in Andhra Pradesh, 415 in Karnataka, 292 in Tamil Nadu, 216 in Uttar Pradesh, 210 each in Rajasthan and West Bengal, 197 in Kerala, 184 in Telangana, 141 in Gujarat and 129 in Madhya Pradesh. Bihar and Punjab have 31 and 57 institutes respectively.
Neighbouring Andhra Pradesh has one teacher training institute for around 156 educational institutes at elementary, secondary and higher secondary level. Similarly, West Bengal has one teacher training institute for every 465 schools. However, its ratio in Odisha stands at 1:1057.
The survey also revealed that Odisha has 68,717 recognised schools which include 34,994 primary, 21,837 upper primary, 9,488 secondary and 2,398 higher secondary schools. While Andhra Pradesh has 63,621 such schools, West Bengal has 97,828.
Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of 1.61 lakh primary and 80,624 upper primary schools, while Maharashtra has the highest number of 17,404 secondary and 10,042 higher secondary schools (junior colleges).
This apart, Odisha has 1,062 recognised colleges, 128 technical education institutes/polytechnics, 28 universities, eight PGDM institutes, 168 nursing institutes and two national institutes under different ministries. With 12 recognised institutes under different ministries, West Bengal topped the list of such institutes among all states as of 2018-19.