Mendipathar, Nov 17: Meghalaya has students intake capacity of only 45,000 at higher education level whereas the population of students is expected to be close to 4 lakh in coming 5 years. This was informed by Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma on Wednesday while speaking at the golden jubilee celebration of Mendipathar College.

Talking on the issue of admission in higher classes and the increasing student population, he said, “In next five years, the student population will increase to about 4 lakh… and you will be surprised to know that we have only 45,000 seats in colleges for our children.”

He said that the Government is aware of this issue and is working to ensure that more seats and colleges are established across the State to ensure that children are not deprived of higher education.

He informed that the Government has recently supported nine colleges in the State under “People’s College” scheme and have initiated programmes like Community College and Model College to further ensure that students get an opportunity for higher education.

“We must come up with more colleges,” he stressed.

At the same time, he also lamented the lack of Science Streams in many higher secondary schools and colleges. “Our children who want to study science, who are good at innovation, good at mathematics… sadly are not having any options… this is the challenge we face and we are looking at ways to move forward,” he said.