The Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education has increased from 10.1 per cent in 2012-13 to 18 per cent in 2017-18. The information was provided by Education Minister Neera Yadav on Thursday at a press meet to share the achievement of the State government in field of higher, technical education and skill development.

Addressing the media persons Yadav said, “There has been an increase of 70 per cent in the GER in higher education which is a matter of pride for us. A number of steps have been taken by the department in the last four and a half years to encourage students to take up higher education in the State.”

The minister informed that around 100 colleges have been established at those districts where there was a shortage of colleges. “Degree colleges have been established in 13 districts while women’s college in 11 districts. Classes are already going on and the new buildings for all these colleges are under construction,” she said.

Yadav also pointed out that while in 2013-14 there were only five universities in the State, the number of universities has now increased to 10 with new universities including Vinod Bihari Mahato University, Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee University, Raksha Shakti University, Jamshedpur Women’s University and Jharkhand Technical University coming up in the last few years.

“Our focus is now on Sanskrit and we are in the process of establishment of a Sanskrit University in Deoghar,” she said.

The minister informed that the number of colleges and universities of State having accreditation from National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) in 2013-14 was six which has now gone up to 96.

There has also been a significant increase in the number of polytechnic colleges in the State. In 2013-14 the total number of polytechnic colleges was 30 which increased to 43 in 2018-19 and the number of seats increased from 8820 to 11,575.

Yadav said that the planetarium at Science City, Chiraundi, has been constructed with a budget of Rs. 26.72 crore and will soon be inaugurated by the Chief Minister. A trial run of the planetarium was conducted on Thursday evening.

Talking about the work done in skill development sector, Yadav said that two Skill Summits were organized, one each in 2018 and 2019. In the first skill summit more than 26,000 youth were placed in various companies while in the second summit, total youths placed were over 1.06 lakh.

She informed that till date 79,300 youths have been trained by Jharkhand Skill Development Mission Society and 48, 672 of them have already been placed in various companies. Also, around 15,517 youths are undergoing training as of now.