By Neeraj Kumar
Patna: Despite the government providing more facilities than ever before, the enrolment situation in government engineering colleges remains concerning. While teachers have been appointed and placement opportunities have improved, students from Bihar continue to show little interest in these institutions. Not only are students from outside the state hesitant to apply, but even local students are avoiding government engineering colleges. The situation has deteriorated to the extent that, after four phases of admissions, around 3,000 seats still remain unfilled.
There are 13,675 seats available in government engineering colleges in Bihar. The Bihar Combined Entrance Competitive Examination Board (BCECEB) conducted two rounds of counselling based on JEE Main results to fill these seats. However, only 46% of the seats were filled through this process. The remaining seats were offered through two additional rounds of admission, using the results of the BCECE PCM (Physics, Chemistry, and Maths) examination. Even after these efforts, the vacant seats persisted. Now, a special round of admissions will be held to fill the remaining 3,000-plus seats, with BCECEB expected to announce the dates for the special round of counselling shortly.
According to reports, after two rounds of JEE Main counselling, only 6,420 (46.95%) seats were filled in government engineering colleges in Bihar, leaving 7,255 (53.05%) seats vacant. These vacant seats include many in sought-after streams such as computer science. Following the second round held in August, 6,507 students were admitted, but 7,168 seats remained vacant. However, this round was cancelled, leaving 7,255 seats unfilled. The BCECEB has since decided to fill these remaining seats by admitting candidates from the PCM group, based on the combined merit list of the BCECEB 2024 examination.
