BHUBANESWAR: As many as 632 aided and private, self-financing higher secondary schools in the state have sought permission from the government to increase around 52,000 seats for Class XI. The state government had earlier sought applications from higher secondary schools keen to increase seats for the 2021-22 academic session.
The government had to take this step following record pass percentage in Class X board exam this year owing to the alternate assessment since exams could not be held owing to the Covid crisis. By initial estimate, there could be a shortage of nearly 30,000 seats in higher secondary level.
A record number of 6,17,876 students have cleared Class X board exam this year, but the state has a total of 6,03,113 seats available in the higher secondary level. The state has as many as 4,43,354 seats in 2,032 higher secondary schools with the rest in vocational institutions. While there is a shortfall of a little over 14,000 seats following the Class X results of the state board, the government expects another 10,000 students to apply from CBSE and ICSE schools besides another 5,000 from other states.
"The government will examine the applications from private and aided higher secondary schools. The 51 state-run schools need not seek permission as they can increase up to 20% as per the demand for seats," school and mass education minister Samir Ranjan Dash.
The state government is yet to start the admission process in higher secondary schools. Sources said the government is waiting for the results of national boards to be declared before starting the admission process. Though the ICSE results were declared on Saturday, the CBSE will take some time to announce its results as computation work is not over yet. Besides, the offline exam of the Board of Secondary Education, Odisha, for Class X students is scheduled on July 31.
"If the government had to wait till the results of other boards were declared and the offline exams to be over, then there was no point in cancelling the board exam. We would have also appeared for the offline exam. The unnecessary delay in the admission process will affect the academic calendar," said Biswajeet Sahu, a Class X pass out.
