Education

This was the vice-chancellor's first interaction with reporters since all colleges and institutes of higher learning in the state came under the purview of Sikkim University earlier this month.

Lama said some of the courses were being introduced in the country for the first time. For example, the School of Indigenous and Folk Studies will have five centres focusing on everything from handicrafts and fashion technology to food science and energy studies.

The School of Peace, Conflict and Human Security Studies, on the other hand, will cover a wide variety of subjects including military science and defence, border history and conflict studies, said the vice-chancellor.

The pass percentages in the BA, B.Sc and B.Com Part III exams (under the 1+1+1 system), the results of which were declared on Tuesday, are better than last year.

The figures stand at 88.96, 94.06 and 86.63 for arts, science and commerce (honours), respectively.

In 2007, the pass percentages in B.A and B.Sc Part II (honours) were 85.24 and 80.52, respectively.

The 1+1+1 system was introduced in 2005, replacing the 2+1 pattern. The batch that graduated this year was the first to take the Part III test under the 1+1+1 system.

Under the existing system, only students below 25 years of age are eligible to sit for the JEE for taking up a medical course. Till 2006, there was no upper age limit.

Higher education minister Sudarshan Ray Chaudhury said in the Assembly on Monday that the West Bengal Joint Entrance Examinations Board would meet in September to review the JEE system.

"The proposal will be discussed by board members and experts associated with medical education," the minister said.

During a discussion on whether the government had plans to bifurcate the JEE and hold separate tests for engineering and medical, Manas Bhuniya of the Congress wanted to know whether the government was considering raising the upper age limit for admission to medical courses.

Results of the BA, B.Sc and B.Com Part-II and Part-III examinations are to be announced on Tuesday and admission forms will be available from the next day onwards. "First-year MA, M.Sc and M.Com courses must begin latest by August 22," vice-chancellor Suranjan Das said.

Faculty members and senior officials of the university met on Monday to work out a strategy to speed up the process of admissions.

The vice-chancellor said admission forms would be uploaded on the university website by Tuesday evening so that prospective applicants did not have to wait a single day. The idea is to complete admissions in three weeks.

Around 3,000 seats in the private engineering colleges are currently lying vacant after students fail to qualify for the next semester. Last year, there were 1,500 vacant seats in these colleges.

According to the rules, if any student fails to qualify for the next year during the four-year course, that particular seat continues to remain vacant until the completion of the batch. Colleges cannot admit students in second, third and fourth year of the course. However, some colleges have been reportedly using unfair means to fill up such seats and giving admission in second, third and fourth year of the course to fill up the vacancies. This has brought them under the scanner of the WBUT and it has decided to conduct an inquiry into the allegation.

“It is learnt that few colleges are conducting admission and filling up such seats in second, third and fourth years, which is totally illegal. We have also heard that students who manage the back-door entry have to pay a hefty amount to the management of the college,” said a WBUT official.

Around 260km from Calcutta, ND Rashtriya Vidyalaya has no clue what to do with the 10 computers and the printer, scanner, web camera and projector gathering dust in one of its rooms for more than three months.

The state, a national laggard in rural electrification, has granted the school Rs 1.55 lakh to buy furniture and dress up a room for its computer classes.

Mahesh Kumar, the teacher in charge of the co-education school, said: “We face great difficulty in running classes during monsoon and summer without power.”

What he did not say was that the government had played a cruel joke on around 1,800 students and their teachers.

"There is a great demand for seats in many colleges, especially in subjects like English, geography, chemistry and accountancy. We will soon increase the number of seats in those colleges where the authorities have been able to upgrade infrastructure," the pro vice-chancellor of academic affairs, Dhrubojyoti Chatterjee, said.

Inspection teams from the university had visited colleges known to overshoot their admission quotas in June. The university then slashed the number of seats in institutions that were found to lack infrastructure or hadn't upgraded their facilities in years.

"We are revisiting colleges in the city and recommending an increase in the number of seats in institutions that have upgraded their facilities. This will help students in the waiting lists of these colleges to study their preferred subjects in the institutions of their choice," another official said.

The faculty council (technology) has cleared the proposal which will be placed before the syndicate on 29 July. The IITs have introduced this system recently.

Under the present system, after passing the higher secondary a student has to clear BSc (honours) exams which is a three-year course. Another three years are spent to study BTech and further two more years to obtain MTech degree.

 Students take five to six years to complete Phd which is virtually a mandatory requirement to get a lecturer's post. Thus, a student who passes higher secondary at the age of 16 years on an average takes around 14 years to obtain a Phd degree as he or she has to pass through a long process. Because of this, many students give up academics and join industries causing a sharp fall in the number of Phd students in Radiophysics and Electronics.

Professor Susanta Sen, dean of the faculty of technology said the new system will reduce the time and will attract good academically-oriented students to join research. After doing BSc, a student may join BTech course which will be a four-year duration and after completing the course, the student will be awarded a dual degree.

Since there was a speculation of seat crisis this year, it was felt that the ongoing admissions to the undergraduate courses would have to be reviewed. "Around 3,66,000 students have passed the class-XII exams this year, combining the three major boards. The intake capacity of our undergraduate colleges, professional colleges and engineering colleges have a commensurate capacity. So, there was no seat shortage. However, colleges are coming under heavy pressure, with a large number of students demanding some particular subjects. After going through the VCs' reports, we have come to the conclusion that though there is no seat shortage, the students may not get the subjects of their choice in their preferred colleges. This has been a problem every year. Though there is no crisis at the macro level, a few colleges in the districts are under pressure. So, we may start several new colleges in the districts," said Subimal Sen, chairman of the higher education council.

Faculty members of the college confirmed that the institution has earned the approval of the West Bengal University of Technology (WBUT) and the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) to introduce the courses.

The principal, J.Jhampati, however, refused comment when contacted in Calcutta.

"Our college is affiliated to the WBUT. The varsity has approved our proposal to introduce PG courses in electrical, mechanical and civil engineering courses," a professor said, on condition of anonymity. "When the proposal was sent to the AICTE for its approval, MTech courses in electrical and mechanical were only endorsed."

The Joint Entrance Examination Board (Jeeb) made it mandatory for candidates applying for this course to clear the National Aptitude Test in Architecture (Nata). To add to the woes of the state's candidates, the board did not arrange a centre in the state to conduct the test.

Candidates who cleared Nata had appeared for the test from Orissa's Piloo Mody College of Architecture and had to shell out around Rs 800 for the test.

Earlier a separate examination namely GDAT (Geometrical Drawing and Aptitude Test) was conducted for students who wished to pursue this course. Till last year only the first 10,000 candidates in the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) were eligible to appear for GDAT and only those holding a higher rank in GDAT enrolled for this course. After the board decided to do away with GDAT and made NATA mandatory from this year, the closing rank in JU came down to 13,410 and it stooped to 26,184 in Besu.

Munshi Premchand College will be set up on Sevoke Road on a 7.5-bigha plot. The land has been given free of cost by the Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC).

"We will complete the construction work within a year. Until then, the classes will be held at Sewmangal High School in Haidarpara here," said Dilip Singh, the chairman of the SMC and the organising secretary of the college.

According to him, 600 students will be offered courses in Bengali, English, history, education and political science.

For Naxalbari College, the admission process will begin tomorrow at Nandoprasad High School, Naxalbari, about 35km from here. "We have decided to admit 150 students in Bengali, English, history, education and sociology," said Gautam Ghosh, the organising secretary of the college.

Till now, the university was administered by bodies like Board of Management and Academic Council, which were created when the institution was a deemed university, whereas it had become a full-fledged university in October 2004.

BESU took nearly four years to come up with a statute and hold elections as per the law. The elections for the court and the council will be held in August, before it becomes an IIEST. After acquiring the status of an IIEST, the university will have to do away with the bodies created under the University Act and will abide by the IIEST act, which is yet to come up.

Biman Bandopadhyay, BESU registrar said, "We don't know when the university will be granted the IIEST status. But it's better that the statutory bodies are elected in due time."

Fourteen new colleges applied for All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) approval by the December deadline, but only four have received it so far. This has made things difficult for the West Bengal University of Technology (WBUT).

After receiving AICTE's approval, WBUT has to conduct an inspection of the college, following which the information is forwarded to the Central Selection Committee (CSC) that conducts counseling for engineering seats. Since AICTE has delayed its approval, WBUT has to complete all the formalities quickly to enrol students by 14 July. WBUT does not know if more colleges will receive approval before this date and has decided to take up the matter with Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi.

Earlier, AICTE used to grant its approval for new colleges throughout the year. Last year, fresh counselling sessions were conducted to enrol students in two new engineering colleges after these colleges appealed to the court since AICTE's approval came late. Finally, on the advice of the state government, AICTE decided that institutions who wish to enrol students need to apply before December.

"Unless we complete the process fast we will not be able to include these colleges in the list of colleges where counselling in being held, which means that these colleges will not be able to enrol students," said Prof. Sabyasachi Sengupta, vice chancellor, WBUT``

The proposal, shelved un-der pressure from Left Front partner RSP, will be soon placed before the cabinet again, school education minister Partha De said today.

"There is a great demand among parents for English-medium institutions," he told the Assembly during the discussion on his department's budget. "We are determined to open English medium units in as many state-run schools as possible."

The proposal and the approval of the finance department had been placed before the cabinet for a final nod in May.

But it was put on hold after PWD minister Kshiti Goswami raised objections and demanded a discussion among the Left Front partners first.