Assam govt contemplating measures to improve enrolment in colleges: Minister

I would like to say there is no proposal of amalgamation of colleges, he asserted.On the states low gross enrolment ration GRE in higher education, Pegu said the problem was due to non-registration of several universities, both government and private in the All India Survey on Higher Education.The all-India GRE is around 28 per cent and it should be at 50 per cent for a country to be among the top-five developed nations.

Assam's Education Minister Ranoj Pegu on Friday said the state government is contemplating various measures to tackle the issue of low enrollment in colleges and clarified that it has no plans to amalgamate or shut institutes.

Addressing a press conference here, Pegu said, ''There are about 69 colleges with very few students and it is not sustainable to run such institutes.'' Asserting that closing down or amalgamation is not part of the government's plans, Pegu said, ''We are trying to come up with other solutions. One way could be clustering of colleges, which will allow students to study in departments of choice in colleges in the same cluster.'' Several girls college have low enrolments, and governing bodies of many of these have already said they are willing to turn these into co-educational institutions, which will increase the number of students, he said.

''The third solution is increasing hostel facilities, especially for girls,'' the minister added.

Pegu said introducing new-age subjects and vocational courses with good placement records could be another way to draw more students.

''When amalgamation happens, colleges are shut. I would like to say there is no proposal of amalgamation of colleges,'' he asserted.

On the state's low gross enrolment ration (GRE) in higher education, Pegu said the problem was due to non-registration of several universities, both government and private in the All India Survey on Higher Education.

''The all-India GRE is around 28 per cent and it should be at 50 per cent for a country to be among the top-five developed nations. In Assam, it was 17 per cent in 2020-21, and fell to 16 per cent in 2021-22.

''We were hoping the percentage would go up in 2021-22 as many new universities had come up. But as there was a decline, it led to a lot of discussion on the matter,'' he said. Pegu said many institutions did not participate in the survey, prompting the state government to organise workshops for universities that were absent from the survey. He said the process has now been streamlined to ensure active participation from institutions. Pegu expressed optimism that with these improvements, there will be a positive change in the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GRE) when the reports for 2022-23 are released next year.

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