Higher Education Enrollment Crisis in Tripura

A CORRESPONDENT

AGARTALA, Aug 10: Tripura despite having the highest literacy rate in India is lagging far behind from the national average in enrolling its youths in the higher education. A recent survey conducted by the State Education department revealed that the Gross Enrollment Ratio in higher education in this state is only 19 per cent while it is 25 per cent in the national level.

The survey further revealed gross imbalance in enrollment for higher education among the societies though the State was ruled for 25 years uninterruptedly by the preachers of an egalitarian society. The survey shows that among the Scheduled Tribes enrollment ratio of students in the higher education is only 13.7 percent while among the Schedule Castes it is 17.9 percent. Enrollment ratio among the girl students also is very less 16.8 percent.

Education Minister Ratan Lal Nath releasing the statistics accused the previous Left Front government’s ‘treacherous’ education policy for this dismal picture. He said, “They set up colleges, have built buildings to display their keenness for higher education but never took care of enrolling students, providing faculties and other infrastructural facilities.”

He said it is very disgraceful that none of the colleges in the state comes under NAAC gradation adding that the present government fixed an aim to elevate all the colleges to grade ‘A’ by next two years. Keeping this target he said the government has already initiated a process to recruit faculties as most of the colleges are in dearth of the faculty. Moreover initiative has been taken to connect all the colleges with modern technology and all the colleges will have separate web portal which will keep all the teachers, students and their guardians aware about the progress of studies in the colleges. He said biometric attendance has already been initiated in some of the colleges and it will be introduced in all the colleges very shortly with an aim to ensure 90 percent attendance of the students.