Finally, Bihar phases out Plus Two classes from colleges, now only schools to offer it from April 1

The Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government has discontinued Plus Two (intermediate) classes in colleges affiliated with several universities across the state. An education department notice, issued on Wednesday evening, stated that the government schools across the state were now well-equipped to handle Plus Two education.

“The department has already developed large-scale infrastructure and recruited 67,961 teachers for higher secondary schools and another 65,737 teachers in secondary schools under a special drive,” read the notification.

The practice of holding the Plus Two classes in colleges was discontinued at Patna University almost a decade ago. However, in other parts of Bihar, students had to visit colleges for their Plus Two classes.

The intermediate education across all three streams -- Science, Commerce, and Arts -- shall now be imparted only in higher secondary schools from April 1 when the new session begins.

In India, Bihar was the only state where the intermediate education was still being imparted in degree colleges, according to a TOI report.

While delinking of intermediate classes from colleges was recommended in the Universities Act a long time back, the same couldn't be implemented until now because of inadequate infrastructure and manpower in higher secondary schools, the state Education department said.

A resolution in this regard was earlier notified in the state gazette.

In 2007, the state government took a policy decision to phase out intermediate education from degree colleges across the state in conformity with the National Education Policy (1986/92) and announced the '10+2 format' in Plus Two.

For the unversed, the National Education Policy, of 1986, recommended a 10+2+3 pattern of education, which was later implemented by several states in the country.

Bihar had also decided to delink intermediate education from colleges in a phased manner starting with the 2007-09 batch.

The latest announcement by the state government comes after it had earlier decided to have one higher secondary school in every panchayat. The state also upgraded the existing secondary schools.