The State’s higher education is at a crossroads. Odisha is neither able to start more colleges nor is it able to raise the capacity of the existing colleges. But it is not that the students are ready to pursue higher studies. The most serious fact that emerges is that higher education in Odisha comes with a cost tag as there are more private-owned colleges than Government-owned ones available for the students.
According to a recently released Annual Status of Higher Education – 2014, Odisha has around 23 colleges per lakh population in the age-group of 18-23 years against 25 colleges per lakh population nationally. At the same time, the average enrolment per college is only 589 against the all-India average of 703. Significantly, private aided and unaided colleges together account for 66 per cent of colleges against a mere 34 per cent Government-owned colleges in Odisha. Interestingly, the trend of less Government-owned, more private-owned colleges is not a novel trend in Odisha only. Except Jharkhand, where 71 per cent colleges are Government owned, the more-private-college trend is pan-national. But Odisha’s geo-population dynamics is different from rest of the country. Its similarity lies more with Jharkhand especially so in terms of huge tribal population. Besides, Odisha has as many as 18 educationally backwards districts mostly inhabited by tribals and Dalits.
The result: when the Scheduled Tribes have a share of around 23 per cent of the State’s population, their share in enrolment figure stands at mere 8 per cent only. Similarly, when Other Backward Castes (OBCs) constitute a whopping 37 per cent of the population, their share in enrolment rate is mere 17 per cent. It needs mentioning that farmers in Odisha mostly belong to OBCs as per latest agriculture census. The Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) in Odisha is 16.6, whereas GER for STs is 6.6 and SCs is 9.2 only.
In contrast, Jharkhand with a ST population of 20.8 per cent records a ST enrolment share of 14.6 per cent and with a share of around 32 per cent OBC population records a share of over 22 per cent in enrolment. This shows, in social representation in higher education, Jharkhand has been more inclusive than Odisha. At the national level, the ST population share is 8.6 per cent and the enrolment share is around 5 per cent. The OBC population share is 42 per cent and enrolment share is 30 per cent.
Some other interesting details also emerged out in the annual status report 2014. Though student population in the age-group of 18-23 years constitutes around 11 per cent of the population, when it comes to graduates the share stood at measly 5 per cent. A look across the gender divide reveals that while female in 18-23 years age-group in Odisha is marginally higher than male, but only 3.6 per cent females are graduates or above against over 7 per cent among males. Though the female enrolment at regular mode is lower at various levels, in M. Phil and Certificates courses level female students are higher than male students, noted the report. However, the report noted that in Odisha student per capita expenditure by Government is Rs2,654.