Finally, the State Government has separated the Plus II colleges from the Plus III colleges and made it a part of school education.
A Gazette notification in this regard was issued by the Higher Education Department on Monday.
From the current academic session, all the Plus II colleges would come under the purview of the School and Mass Education Department.
Now, the State Government can access funds under the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and the Rashtriya Uchatar Sikshya Abhiyan (RUSA) for development of junior and undergraduate colleges. Though the State Government in 1989 had initiated steps to separate the Plus II streams from the colleges of the Higher Education Department but because of a lapse in proper monitoring and non-fixation of modalities, the separation decision took nearly 26 years for implementation.
The State Government was losing crores of rupees every year for not splitting the Plus II from Plus III.
Meanwhile, Higher Education Minister Pradeep Panigrahy informed that starting from this academic session Plus II courses would be in line with the CBSE syllabus and Board examination would be introduced in te first year of the Plus II course.