Assam Government Plans College Mergers to Enhance Enrollment

GUWAHATI: Assam‘s government, under Education Minister Ranoj Pegu’s guidance, considers halting college teacher recruitment and merging departments with low student enrollment. This initiative aligns with the policy of school amalgamation due to minimal student enrollment, aiming to optimize higher education institutions..
In a post on X, Pegu said the Higher Education Department conducted a meeting with the principals and the governing body presidents of 79 colleges having less than 500 enrolments on Saturday evening.
“…discussed possible roadmap to enhance enrolment… Enhancing gross enrolment ratio (GER) in higher education is a priority of the government,” he said.
Accordingly, the minister has directed the higher education department to draft a policy for the merger of colleges or departments having lower numbers of students, similar to the one by the school education department.
The government is “aiming at merging colleges or departments having low enrolment and to stop recruiting teachers against vacancies in dept (department) with low enrolment”.
The Assam government has closed down thousands of schools in the last few years through the amalgamation process.
The education department through the amalgamation process merges one school with another for various reasons such as less number of students, poor infrastructure, lower pupil-teacher ratio and higher operational cost.

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