LUCKNOW, April 13 -- The department of higher education has initiated an exercise to create clusters of teachers in all districts of Uttar Pradesh to ensure that the number of teaching faculty in the state's government and aided degree colleges is proportionate to the student enrolment. Under the initiative, in institutions where the student proportion is high but the number of teachers is low, faculty members will be deputed from nearby colleges-based on requirements-to take classes. BL Sharma, director of higher education, said, "We will create a cluster of teachers within each district. The objective is to ensure the optimal utilisation of our teaching faculty. If a situation arises where one institution has fewer students but a surplus of teachers while another has fewer teachers but a high student enrolment, teachers will be asked to travel to nearby colleges to take classes." Primary reason for the decline in student enrolment in the state's higher education and technical institutions is the continued reliance on traditional academic courses. Now with changing times, these institutions can effectively attract students only by offering professional courses, an official said. "Currently, the majority of government colleges primarily offer only BA, BSc and BCom programmes. This is one of the key reasons why students are no longer drawn to these institutions," said Lucknow University vice chancellor Prof JP Saini. He said that today's students are gravitating towards professional courses-such as BBA, BCA and BTech-with the specific aim of securing direct employment immediately upon completion. We must also place a strong emphasis on skill development, an official said. To ensure that the state's youth have access to quality higher education within their own region, the private sector was encouraged and provided with various incentives. However, the rapidly expanding network of private colleges and universities now poses a challenge to government-run institutions. The number of private universities in UP has risen to 53, while the number of private colleges has exceeded 7,520. In stark contrast, the state currently has only 24 government universities and 216 government colleges....