PATNA: On June 4 this year, the Bihar Secondary Examination Board (BSEB) chairman Dr A K P Yadav, on the occasion of the release of the results of this year’s Intermediate Science (ISc) examinations, said that BSEB would provide in time requisite certificates to students seeking admissions in the colleges of Delhi University, or of such other universities, and even technical institutes outside Bihar.
This was open admission of the fact that a large chunk of Intermediate students have been enrolling for higher education in colleges and institutes outside Bihar, implying that the the state’s higher education system has continued to be in a shambles. However, there is no compiled data available reflecting the proportional flight of such students.
Incidentally, the national gross enrolment ratio (GER) of Intermediate students enrolling for higher education in colleges is around 13 per cent. The GER figure of Bihar in its various districts is less than 10. “The state’s GER in most districts is 3, 4, 5, … all less than 10, but rarely 13,” said deputy director (higher education) Dipak Kumar Singh, adding: “There are no actual data about the students who enrol outside, and about those who don’t enrol anywhere.”
This year, 1.95 lakh students passed (ISc) examinations conducted by the BSEB, 2.92 lakh students IA examinations, and 54,228 students ICom. Students have also been clearing the Intermediate-level examinations from various private secondary schools, but due to lack of compiled information in this regard, their figures have not been accounted for.
By that token, of the total 5.41 lakh BSEB-cleared intermediate students of the ISc, IA and ICom faculties who might enrol in various colleges of the state for higher education would be in the range of only 54,122 (10 per cent). Since admissions outside the state would entail higher monthly expenditure for the maintenance of students concerned, only a small chunk of them could be expected to have moved outside — by rough estimate, around 20%, or around 1.08 lakh.
Accordingly, around 3.79 lakh such students would not have enrolled for higher education at all, which is a bad sign of the management of the state’s youth resources. “It is true that we don’t have any established mechanism to reach any conclusion, since our database on them does not exist,” Singh said.
He said the state’s human resource development department is going to set up a monitoring cell whose units would also be in the districts. Among its various activities hinging on keeping watch on academic atmosphere, it would also collect data and information on students.