BHUBANESWAR: Although five years have passed since the State government announced the separation of higher secondary schools - earlier called Plus II colleges - from degree colleges, it is still struggling to bring a large number of such institutions under the administrative control of School and Mass Education (SME) department from the Higher Education department.
Over 90 per cent of such schools are dependent on degree colleges due to lack of infrastructure and adequate faculty and staff strength. The Higher Education department had in May 2016 notified separation of the schools from degree colleges across the State from 2016-17 academic session.
Accordingly, it was decided that after separation, the schools will be brought under the administrative control of SME department and separate infrastructure will be created for their independent functioning.
However, of 2,048 higher secondary schools, over 90 per cent are still struggling to function independently owing to various reasons including delay in their separation, lack of adequate infrastructure, and lack of faculty.
Sources in the SME department said over 66 per cent of government higher secondary schools and more than half of the 488 category fully-aided schools have not been brought under the administrative control of the department yet. “Out of 51 government schools, only 17 have been brought under the administrative control of our department and 34 are functioning under the Higher Education department,” said an official from the SME department.
He also informed that out of 517 schools in the 488 categories, 240 are under the administrative control SME department, while the remaining 277 are functioning under the Higher Education department.
The officer added that barring a few higher secondary schools like BJB, Ravenshaw, most of these schools including Rama Devi, Khallikote, Gangadhar Meher and MPC are struggling to function independently.
The school at Rama Devi University was supposed to be shifted to Unit-9 Girl’s High School in the Capital with separate infrastructure and staff. Though the process for separation was initiated in 2019, it is yet to be completed.
Officials said to shift all the higher secondary schools, over 1,000 teachers need to be appointed but the recruitment has not been done to date. Besides, around 516 schools face the problem of demarcation of infrastructure and alienation of land from degree colleges as well as getting records of rights for the land under their possession.
An official said though the SME department had set a target of wrapping up the separation and infrastructure creation process for all schools by 2024, it is lagging behind by two years due to Covid-19.
He, however, said that committees were formed at the district level with collectors as their heads in December 2021 to expedite the separation process. Besides, DEOs and principals of the schools have been asked to pursue the matter with officials concerned at the earliest to complete the exit process and initiate measures for the creation of their own infrastructure, wherever needed.