Nearly 90 per cent of the colleges in the State have not been accredited to National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC).
Due to this, these educational institutions cannot receive financial support from the University Grants Commission (UGC), the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) and other Central assistances every year.
Utkal Gandhi Smarak Nidhi (UGSN) president Prahalad Sinha has blamed the State Government for such a sad state of affair in the higher education system.
In a letter to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, he has mentioned several reasons behind the State’s backwardness. He has appealed to the CM to work towards strengthening the education system so that all the colleges and universities receive ‘A’ grade or above from the NAAC.
Out of 97 Government colleges, 2,635 private colleges, 11 State-run universities, three private universities and 37 autonomous colleges, only 72 colleges (53 general degree colleges and 19 engineering and other professional colleges) and three universities have NAAC accreditation in the State.
The three universities are Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan (SOA), Centurion and North Odisha.
Of the total 53 general degree colleges, only nine have ‘A’ grade NAAC and the remaining are accredited to grade ‘B’ and ‘C’ by the NAAC. Out of the 37 autonomous colleges, three have been given the university status last year.
Notably, the NAAC has not accredited 25 out of the 34 autonomous colleges due to poor infrastructure. lecturer posts are yet to be filled in the colleges and universities. There are no regular lecturers for the courses like Biotechnology, IT and Computer Science in the Government colleges.