The Assam government is planning to halt teachers' recruitment in colleges and merge certain departments of such institutions where student enrollment is less, said the state Education Minister Ranoj Pegu.

As per a report by PTI, the government is mulling the step of merging the institutions of higher education in line with the existing policy of amalgamation of schools where student enrollment is scanty.

The minister said, in a tweet posted on social media platform X, that the Higher Education Department conducted a meeting with the principals and the governing body presidents of 79 colleges having less than 500 enrollments on Saturday evening, February 25.

"We discussed a possible roadmap to enhance enrollment. Enhancing gross enrolment ratio (GER) in higher education is a priority of the government," he said.

Accordingly, the minister has directed the higher education department to draft a policy for the merger of colleges or departments having lower numbers of students, similar to the one by the school education department. 

The government is "aiming at merging colleges or departments having low enrolment and to stop recruiting teachers against vacancies in dept (department) with low enrollment".

The Assam government has closed down thousands of schools in the last few years through the amalgamation process, added PTI.

The education department through the amalgamation process merges one school with another for various reasons such as less number of students, poor infrastructure, lower pupil-teacher ratio and higher operational cost.