As many as 55,000 additional seats will be required at the Plus Two level in Odisha this year after a record number of students passed the matriculation examination.

Nearly 6.07 lakh students have passed the matriculation examination this year surpassing the number of seats available in government and private Plus Two colleges, Industrial Training Institutes and other polytechnic institutions in the state. The pass percentage touched 97.89 per cent in the Class X examination conducted by the Board of Secondary Education, Odisha.

The students were evaluated on the basis of their performance in Class IX and the pre-board examination conducted by their respective schools because physical exams could not be held owing to the Covid-19 pandemic. Some students who were not satisfied with their marks were allowed to sit for the offline examination. Their results would be declared this week.

Similarly, 99.62 per cent students from Odisha passed the Class X exam of the CBSE and 99.98 per cent cleared the ICSE exam.

Odisha school and mass education minister Samir Ranjan Dash told The Telegraph: “Both the government, private and residential colleges across the state have applied for increasing their seats by 55,000 this year. We will consider the proposal after thoroughly scrutinising each college’s demand. Our inspection teams will visit the colleges and give us a detailed report.”

While the state government will face less hurdles to increase seats in the arts and commerce streams, its tough to increase seats in the science stream without adequate infrastructure support, sources said.

“We have to consider all aspects, including creating adequate infrastructure like laboratory facilities which are needed for science stream students. We will examine the infrastructure available in the private colleges and self-financing institutes before allowing them to increase the number of seats,” Dash said.

A teachers’ association leader Pabitra Mahala said: “The colleges at the Plus Two level are functioning with an acute shortage of staff. At this time, increasing the number of seats to accommodate students will mean adding to the burden of teachers. The quality of education will be compromised.”

He added: “Plus Two and Plus Three colleges are functioning on a single campus with limited infrastructure. With the number of seats increasing overnight, many issues will crop up. It would now be a major challenge for the college authorities to provide necessary facilities to the students.”

Social activist Basudev Bhatt, who works in the field of education, said: “We have no problem if the government colleges increase the number of seats. But we will certainly raise the issue if the state allows private colleges to increase seats. The government needs to thoroughly examine the infrastructure to be provided by them to students. No underhand transaction should be encouraged to increase seats.”

The state government on Saturday said the admission process for the Plus Two level is likely to begin from the third week of August. “Last year, it commenced on August 21. But this year we are likely to start it on August 16. The exact date of admission will be notified very soon,” an official said.