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Improving higher education in west bengal
Improving higher education in West Bengal can be a complex and multi-faceted issue, but there are several key steps that could be taken to make progress in this area:
Increase Funding: One of the most important steps that can be taken to improve higher education in West Bengal is to increase funding for universities and colleges. This will enable institutions to hire more faculty, improve infrastructure, and provide better educational resources to students.
Improve Quality of Faculty: Another critical factor for improving higher education in West Bengal is to ensure that universities and colleges have quality faculty members. This can be achieved by hiring professors with advanced degrees and extensive research experience, providing incentives for faculty to publish research and provide mentorship, and investing in ongoing professional development for professors.
Upgrade Curriculum: West Bengal's universities and colleges must upgrade their curriculum to stay relevant with the fast-paced and evolving technological world. Institutions should provide interdisciplinary, comprehensive and modern curricula that are in line with the industry demands.
Collaboration with Industry: Universities and colleges should focus on fostering strong partnerships with local industry to ensure that their curriculum aligns with the needs of the job market, and graduates are ready to meet the demands of the workforce.
Modernize Infrastructure: Upgrading infrastructure facilities such as classrooms, laboratories, and libraries is essential to provide the best quality education to students. This also includes implementing state-of-the-art technology to support teaching and learning in a modernized way.
Promote Research: Encouraging research activities will help universities to evolve and stay up to date with new technological advancements. This can be accomplished by establishing research centers and collaborating with other academic institutions.
Online Learning: Due to the pandemic, it has become necessary to move towards online education in West Bengal. A hybrid approach to learning, combining online and in-person instruction, could help to provide flexibility and accessibility to students.
By implementing these steps, West Bengal can improve the quality of higher education provided by its institutions and equip graduates with the necessary skills to succeed in the workforce.
Without specific information about what previous improvements are being referred to, it is difficult to provide exact data. However, I can offer some general information on the state of higher education in West Bengal.
According to the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), a ranking system established by the Ministry of Education, Government of India, some universities and colleges in West Bengal have made significant improvements in recent years. For example, Jadavpur University, one of the most prestigious universities in West Bengal, was ranked 5th among engineering colleges in India in 2021, up from 6th in 2020. Similarly, the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, located in West Bengal, was ranked 4th among engineering colleges in India in 2021, up from 5th in 2020.
Additionally, West Bengal has taken steps to improve higher education by establishing several new institutions, including the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Kolkata, and the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Kalyani. These institutions are designed to provide high-quality education and research opportunities to students in West Bengal and throughout India.
The West Bengal government has now decided to close over 8,000 government-aided schools in the state, of which 6,845 are primary and 1,362 are upper primary. 531 of these schools are in Kolkata.
The state government recently listed schools with less than 30 students. On average, these schools have 17 to 20 students. The total number of full-time teachers associated with these schools is 19,083 and the number of temporary teachers is 1,181. If the government proceeds with its school closure plan, assuming an average enrollment of 25 students at each school, approximately 2,000 students will be affected.
Of the 8,207 schools on the list, most (1,100) are in Nadia district, followed by Kolkata (531). The figures for other districts are North 24 Parganas (538), Bankura (886), Birbhum (320), Darjeeling (418), Hogli (303), Howrah (273), Jalpaiguri (216), Jargram (478), Kalimpong (312), Malda (146), and Murshidabad (326). With the closure of these schools, the teaching and non-teaching staff will be redeployed to nearby schools. This is expected to reduce the number of registrations for teacher certification exams in the state this year.
The number of students in these schools would have decreased following the pandemic closures. Reports indicate that many male students have migrated in search of work, while many female students have gotten married. Four million fewer students took the high school graduation exam this year than last year, painting a bleak picture for education in the state.
Refusal to register
In a 2018 report published in the journal Emerging Technologies and Innovation Research, author Mumita Dey found that in 2011, there were 671,255 students studying in grades 5 to 8 in Parganas across 24 southern states, 90.4 percent of whom were enrolled in government schools. By 2015, that percentage had dropped to 80.56 percent. The total number of students studying from grade 5 to grade 8 also dropped to 5,05,792 during this period, which is alarming and may indicate a worse situation even before the pandemic hit the state.
Experts believe that corruption in government work and education efforts may have affected the state's education sector. According to the Right to Education Act, the teacher-pupil ratio should be 1:30 in elementary school and 1:35 in secondary schools. however, the report shows that the teacher-pupil ratio in the state is 1:73 in elementary school and 1:72 in secondary schools.
At Thioppara Radharani Junior High School in Murarai, Virbhum, the total number of students in grades five to ten is only 342. The school has only temporary teachers and no regular teachers. At Jalpaiguri Kranti Junior Balika Vidyalaya, only one teacher teaches all classes and provides lunch for 350 students. a 2021 UNESCO report highlights this situation, noting that there are over 100,000 vacant teaching positions in the state.
Teacher appointment scam
The School Selection Commission (SSC) scam in West Bengal came to light after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) found Rs 21 crore in cash at the residence of Arpita Mukherjee, who is said to be a close associate of TMC's Partha Chatterjee, a former state education minister. Both have been arrested and the matter is being investigated by the Education Department and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
After the Trinidad and Tobago Congress (TMC) government was formed in the state in 2011, serious procedural irregularities were discovered in the 2012 teacher recruitment process, known as the Regional Level Selection Test (RLST), where candidates were ranked based on their overall scores and those who ranked lower were hired as teachers. Many candidates who were "cheated" by the selection board knocked on the doors of the courts; these cases are still pending before the Supreme Court.
Similar irregularities were found in the 2016 state level selection test (SLST) for teachers of classes 9, 10, 11 and 12, where Ankita Adhikari, daughter of Minister Paresh Adhikari, was appointed as a teacher in a government school in Kutch-Bihar. She was later found guilty by the court and dismissed. She was also instructed to return her entire salary for 41 months while in service.
At the beginning of the hiring process, there were allegations that uneducated candidates were given preferential treatment and many were appointed.On December 11, 2019, the Calcutta High Court ordered the cancellation of the shortlist and suspension of the recruitment process in light of these malpractices.
However, even after the resumption of the recruitment process in 2016, the situation remained unchanged and several lower-ranked candidates were shortlisted and hired.
The non-employee hiring committee started the application process from August 10 to 31, 2016.On May 4, 2019, the SSC hinted to applicants that the recruitment process was over. Interestingly, after this announcement, hundreds of candidates from outside the panel were hired. The Calcutta High Court suspended the salaries of first 25 employees and then 542 employees after finding numerous irregularities in the recruitment process.
The last SSC teacher recruitment, the SLST for classes 9 and 10, was held on November 27, 2016, and the SLST for classes 11 and 12 was held on December 4, 2016. The Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) was last conducted on August 16, 2015; however, since then, recruitment of teachers for upper primary grades in the state has been suspended.
Throughout the recruitment process, there were allegations that some aspiring teachers paid large sums of money to the TMC leadership, which was given to then Education Minister Partha Chatterjee.
Under the Left Front government prior to 2011, there was a decentralized recruitment process, with five local authorities approving recruitment. However, under the TMC, a bill was introduced in Parliament to abolish the decentralized process, and the West Bengal Secondary Education Board, chaired by Professor Kalyanmoy Ganguly, reportedly reached an "informal understanding" with the education minister.
During the pandemic-induced blockade, when everything was at a standstill, some candidates allegedly gave "pennies" which were channelled to the then education minister Partha Chatterjee, who was illegally recruited.
The Calcutta High Court set up a committee which was given extensive evidence of irregularities and ordered the removal of Ganguly and Manik Bhattacharya from their posts as chairmen of the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education and the West Bengal State Primary Teachers' Council, respectively.
The first merit list released by the SSC after a change in the recruitment process in 2014 invited allegations of widespread irregularities, due to which the merit list for the upper primary grades was cancelled by the High Court. In the second list, there were also irregularities, so that not a single appointment has been made since 2014. These irregularities were noted by the High Court and a committee was subsequently established.
In many cases, the academic scores of undeserving candidates were allegedly raised by the SSC authorities in exchange for money. Meanwhile, many candidates whose scores exceeded the cut-off marks were rejected, ostensibly because their online submissions were rejected.
In 1998, to clarify the teacher recruitment process, the then Left Front government created the SSC, which was divided into five regions. Each region was authorized to recruit teachers based on previously advertised vacancies. In the same way, the state government gave the power to appoint teachers to the regional primary teaching committees.
After the TMC came to power in the state, the process of recruiting elementary school teachers was marred by "nepotism," and Chatterjee took the opportunity to centralize the entire process when he became education minister in 2013. Parliament passed a bill that effectively centralized power. The bill gave the power to recruit elementary school teachers to the Primary Teaching Council and the power to recruit upper elementary school teachers to the West Bengal Secondary Education Board, whose helmsman is the minister himself.
Closure of Schools
According to a report released by the state education department, about 7,018 elementary school have been closed in the state in the last 10 years. Most of the schools that were closed were located in economically distressed areas. The most closed schools (1192) were in South 24 Parganas district, followed by West Medinipore (1.047) and East Medinipore (867). This is also consistent with a decline in enrollment (over 600,000) - from 78,04,684 students in 2012 to 71,95,728 in 2022. Of the state's 980 elementary school, 64 were closed and 145 teachers were transferred to other schools.
The number of elementary middle and high schools dropped from 97,428 in 2019 to 95,755 in 2020 The number further dropped to 94,744 in 2022, according to data compiled by the education department.
