Bihar tops list of 12 states short of tech education seats

New Delhi, Nov 14 (UNI) Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh has urged Chief Ministers of 12 large states to take urgent steps for enhancing capacity of technical education institutions to take in more students.

A review of availability of seats in degree and diploma-level technical education courses revealed that while for the country as a whole, 68 degree and 31 diploma-level seats were available in technical education institutions per one lakh population, both these figures were way below the national average in nine major States.

These states and the number of degree and diploma-level seats available in them per one lakh population are: Bihar (three and four), Assam (four and six), Jharkhand (15 and 10), West Bengal (24 and 11), Himachal Pradesh (26 and 13), Chhattisgarh (28 and 13), Uttar Pradesh (36 and seven), Rajasthan (38 and six), and Orissa (55 and 26).

Besides, in Jammu&Kashmir and Gujarat, number of degree-level seats per lakh population is only 21 and 39, respectively, while in Madhya Pradesh, this figure for diploma-level seats is only 19.

Among the corrective steps suggested by Mr Singh to the Chief Ministers to address the deficiencies are: Establishment of new institutions, especially in backward areas, expansion of intake in existing institutions, opening new branches and courses, especially in emerging areas, grant of incentives for establishment of bona-fide non-government institutions of good quality and non commercial nature, programme of quality improvement of technical education, and Improvement and expansion of secondary education.

The Ministry has also advised the All India Council of Technical Education to take special steps to promote expansion of Technical Education in these 12 large States.

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