Assam's education minister, Ranoj Pegu, refuted the idea of merging colleges with low student enrollment. This follows Pegu's earlier directive to the higher education department to develop a policy for merging colleges in accordance with the current school amalgamation policy.
During a gathering with the leaders of governing bodies and principals from 79 colleges, the state education minister ordered a halt to the recruitment of teachers in institutes with low enrollment.
In a recent update on X, Pegu stated, “In response to a news of college amalgamation, I do hereby clarify that there is no move now to amalgamate Colleges with low enrolment. We are making efforts to increase enrolment in colleges with low enrolment.”
He also mentioned that the principals “must make efforts to increase the number of students to make the colleges sustainable”. The minister stated that if a college is unable to draw students, the department will intervene.
The Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) for higher education is determined by dividing the total number of students enrolled by the population aged 18-23 and then multiplying the result by 100. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 targets a 50 per cent GER by 2030.
According to the most recent data provided by the minister, Assam's gross enrolment ratio stands at 16.9 per cent, falling short of the national average of 28.4 per cent. “Our low GER is not due to enrolment rates but primarily due to incomplete data submission to the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE),” he said.
To tackle the low enrollment rate, the higher education department arranged a three-day workshop at B Borooah College, which was attended by over 800 government and private colleges “to ensure accurate and timely data submission to AISHE”.
The minister stated that submitting data on time will give the government a complete understanding of the education sector, including Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER), overall pass rates, and will help in developing appropriate policies.
