Seat hurdle in pursuing higher education

Guwahati: The dearth of postgraduate seats in state universities has deprived many students of the opportunity to pursue higher education, alleged the state committees of Students’ Federation of India (SFI) and Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) on Tuesday.
SFI and DYFI will stage protests across Assam on September 20, seeking an adequate number of seats to absorb graduates in postgraduate courses and solve the problem of unemployment.
“According to a study conducted by our team, 26,487 students graduated from Gauhati University with honours this year. The postgraduate courses of Gauhati University, Cotton College State University and Bodoland University have only 2,973 seats. Similarly, 4,822 students graduated with honours in science, arts and commerce streams from Dibrugarh University this year, but there are only 1,280 seats in postgraduate courses in the university,” said Ritu Ranjan Das, secretary of the Assam state committee of SFI.
He added that the number of students who passed the Class 12 board examination last year was more than 1.5 lakh, but the number of seats in undergraduate colleges of Assam is around one lakh.
SFI has demanded a uniform fee structure in the state’s undergraduate colleges. “Most educational institutions in the state lack internet and library facilities. But the fee continues to go up. The government must ensure best facilities for students so that they can compete with their peers in other parts of the country,” said Das.
Secretary of the state committee of DYFI, Nayan Bhuyan, said, at a time the number of unemployed people in Assam has crossed 40 lakh, more than 23,000 posts in the education department are lying vacant.
He added hundreds of students and youths from various parts of the state will throng the banks of the Dighalipukhuri to press for their demands.