large numbers of vacancies of seats are occurring in the technical institutes, both Government and private, in the State. “There are huge vacancies in engineering colleges, polytechnics and Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs),” said a senior officer in the Department of Skill Development & Technical Education (DoSDTE).
These institutions have a total number of 1,78,301 seats, but the actual intake in 2015 was only 97,925, leaving a whopping 81,376 seats lying vacant. So, there are 45 per cent vacancies.
Recently AICTE Chairman Dr Anil Saharsrabudhe expressed concern over growing the vacancies in the engineering colleges run by private entities.
In Odisha, there are 93 engineering colleges, out of which only five are run by the State Government having 45,539 seats.
While all the 3,000 seats of Government engineering colleges are running with full intake capacity, private engineering colleges having 42,539 seats are facing 67 per cent of vacancies with only 14,117 seats being filled up.
Massive vacancies are the result of a decline in quality of education and students not opting for colleges in remote areas.
The situation in polytechnics is also critical. There are 142 such institutions, 32 run by Government and 110 by private promoters having 45,915 seats. Both Government and private polytechnics are facing lower intakes.
Out of the 8,355 seats available in Government polytechnics, 6,525 are filled up, leaving 1,830 seats vacant. Out of 37,560 seats in private polytechnics, 21,644 are filled up and 15,916 vacant.
In case of ITIs, 44 are run by the Government and 586 by private promoters. There are 85,911 seats in all these 630 it is, and out of it 50,703 seats are filled up, leaving 35, 208 vacant. Out of the 67,475 seats in private ITIs, 33,522 are vacant.
With hardly any job for engineering, polytechnic and ITI products inside the State, each year the numbers of vacancies in these institutions are on the rise. One after another engineering college is closing down, and many are facing acute financial problems to run the institutions and provide quality education.
With huge vacancies plaguing technical institutions across the country, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) is mulling reduction of the intakes by about 30 per cent in next few years, said sources.