Anita Chhetri | Intern

To help Class XII graduates continue their education, the government has asked the tertiary education institutes to look into increasing the number of intake without compromising the quality and standard of education.

Prime Minister Dr Lotay Tshering said, “Many have suggested increasing the intake of students in the RUB which can’t happen overnight. We can’t ask RUB to increase or decrease the intake of students because it is an autonomous body. Yet, we have requested them.”

Most of the students who graduated Class XII in the past two years could not go abroad to pursue higher studies mainly due to the pandemic. They have enrolled in the local tertiary institutes which left many out of colleges. Some students who secured as high as 70 percent were unable to join colleges.

Lyonchhen said, “The market is crowded with Class XII graduates since they can’t go to study outside. But the possibility of increasing the seats in RUB is hard because when we increase the number of seats, we also have to increase the number of faculties that can teach at tertiary education level”.

The government is planning on opening up more avenues for Class XII students to enrol into.

“The irony of the situation right now is students are not opting colleges like Jigme Namgyal Engineering College (JNEC) and College of Science and Technology (CST) despite them having the biggest intake,” Lyonchhen said.  

Lyonchhen said it could be because of students not opting science in Class XII despite science being the important subject in the digitalised world. “The problem we are facing right now did not happen overnight.”

He said that plans to change the education system are underway but it would take decades for education standards to change.

Of 12,595 Class XII students who sat for the board examinations last year, 3,567 qualified for higher education. 

Edited by Tshering Palden

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