Follow new guidelines strictly, Odisha govt tells colleges

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Aug 5:

The Higher Education department has directed all colleges of Odisha to strictly implement its new guideline from the current academic session.

As per the new guidelines, the e-admission process in the Plus Two streams will take place from July 7 to 30 while admission in the Plus Three will be done from July 14 to August 5.

The concerned universities would publish the notification for commencement of Plus Two and Plus Three classes from August 1 and 7 respectively.

The Higher Education department, in its notification, would fix a date for election to the students’ union bodies in all colleges.

The Dussehra puja vacation would be from October 1 to 8 this year.

The Test examination of Plus Two final year, Plus Three first, second and final year and semester examinations for first and second year post graduate courses are scheduled in the second week of December.

Besides, annual sports and cultural functions of all colleges and universities will be held from January 5 to 20.

While annual examination for Plus Two first year students will be held in the third week of April, the date of form fill-up and annual examinations for Plus Two and Plus Three final year students would be jointly decided by the Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE) and the universities.

The results of the annual Plus Two examinations would be announced by June 10 and the annual Plus Three examinations within 45 to 60 days after the conclusion of the theory examinations.

The total holiday for all colleges and universities would be 72 days apart from Sundays with two reserve holidays.

The summer vacation would start from May 1 to June 18.

There would be a minimum of 180 days of teaching in all colleges and universities in a calendar year.

The department has also prepared the duration of teaching. Each period will have a duration of 45 minutes while duration of each practical classes would be 2 hours and 15 minutes.

For practical classes, there will be a group of 32 students in the Plus Two and 16 students in Plus Three streams.

There will be a minimum 80 periods for Plus Two students in a year with four periods for each subject in a week.

Apart from this, one period has been earmarked for Yoga, Environment Studies and Computer Education in a week. A minimum of 30 periods would be held on these subjects in a year.

There would be one period for practical classes in a week and a minimum of 20 periods in a year.

However, theory and practical classes for Plus Three and Post Graduate students will be held as per the schedule of the universities.

Each lecturer would be allotted at least 25 periods in a week. The timetable provided to the students will mention the subject and the name of the lecturer. Each lecturer will prepare a lesson plan for each subject for which there would be a progress register that would be signed by the concerned principal at the end of the month.

The lecturers would prepare question paper sets that would be kept in the library where the students can go through them for their practice.

Priority has been given to infrastructure development of libraries and laboratories. Under the new guidelines, there would be a library in each college with adequate stock of books, reference books and journals.  A stock register of the library would be prepared at the end of each calendar year.

There would be separate laboratories for Plus Two and Plus Three students.

Besides, there would be a seminar either once a week or at the month-end for Honours students in which all students are bound to participate.

The new guideline has laid more emphasis on the attendance of the students. The names of students having less than 75 percent attendance would be displayed in the college and university notice boards. The concerned college and university authorities would send the attendance percentage of the students to their parents or guardians in the last week of September and December by Speed Post.

In terms of infrastructure requirements, each college must have a boundary wall and have at least a computer and a printer with Internet facility.

The building of each college would be supervised by an assistant engineer. If any part of the building is found in a dilapidated state, it would be demolished immediately.

A master database would be prepared to keep all records of the college.

Each college will have a mandatory placement cell.

Besides, colleges seeking UGC grant must obtain NAAC approval for which they have to strengthen their infrastructure, the guideline has pointed out.