Odisha to increase 20% seats in some higher secondary schools
A whopping 97.89% of the 574,000 students who had enrolled for the matriculation examination conducted by the Odisha Board of Secondary Education, cleared it---the highest so far
With nearly 98% of the 574,000 students clearing the annual matriculation examination this year, the Odisha government has decided increase at least 20% of the seats in higher secondary schools that recorded 100% enrolment during the previous academic year.
A whopping 97.89% of the 574,000 students who had enrolled for the matriculation examination conducted by the Odisha Board of Secondary Education, cleared it---the highest so far, surpassing the 86.37 pass percentage in 2017. As no examination could be conducted this year, the Odisha Board of Secondary Education relied on an alternative assessment system taking into account the marks secured in Class 9 as well periodic tests in Class 10.
Adding another 25,000 students who graduated from State Open School, Madhyama and Madrasa board, the total number of students eligible for admission to higher secondary classes would be more than 600,000. This apart, around 12,000 students from CBSE, CISCE and other boards are likely to compete for the same set of seats in these colleges.
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As of now, only 443,000 seats are available in 2,032 higher secondary schools. Another 159,000 seats are available in government and private diploma institutes and ITIs.
School and mass education minister Samir Ranjan Dash said the government has a provision to allow major schools to increase their seats by 20% after their existing seats are exhausted.
“The results of CBSE and ISCE are yet to be announced. Once the results are out, government would take appropriate measures for their enrolment. If necessary, we may consider allowing this extension to some of the higher secondary schools after due scrutiny. No student will suffer due to scarcity of seats,” Dash said.
Dash said in the academic years 2018-19 and 2019-20, the number of seats was increased in Ravenshaw higher secondary school in Cuttack, BJB higher secondary school in Bhubaneswar, SCS higher secondary school in Puri, and Rajendra higher secondary school in Bolangir as the number of applicants outnumbered the number of seats.
Incidentally, in 2020, a whopping 124,000 seats in higher secondary schools remained vacant while in 2019, at least 120,000 lakh seats in Arts, Science and Commerce streams of higher secondary schools had remained vacant at the end of academic sessions. In 2018, around 20% of the total seats had been vacant.
