Page 24 - EW Oct 2023

Education News

WEST BENGAL THEY SAID IT
Downward spiral
“Second chances also pave the way for in-
ontrol of west bengal’s 31 state-run universities by novation and creativity. The history of human
appointing vice chancellors of choice continues to be progress is punctuated by countless stories of
Ca bone of contention between the ruling Trinamool visionaries who faced initial setbacks but later
Congress (TMC) government and the state’s Governor,
C.V. Ananda Bose, ex-officio chancellor of all state uni- triumphed.”
versities. Since May, 22 interim VCs have been appointed Srinath Sridharan, author & Steve Correa, corporate
by the governor. According to the Raj Bhavan (governor’s advisor (Business World, September 23)
residence-cum-office), the names of interim VCs of nine
other universities have also been finalised and appoint- “In nearly six decades of general elections
ment letters “will be issued soon”. These VCs have been after independence, the ratio of women MPs
selected ignoring University Grants Commission’s (UGC) never even touched 10 percent. We crossed
search-and-select system of appointing vice chancellors, as that mark only in 2009. And gender parity
well as the recommendations of the state education minis- is still a pipe dream in the states. Currently,
try. Some of the interim VCs appointed are non-academics women MLAs account for a mere 7 percent of
and don’t have the qualifications mandated by UGC. the 4,000-plus assembly seats in India. For a
Moreover on September 1, a new notification from the representative democracy, this can only count
governor’s office stated that the faculty and non-faculty as the deepest failure. This bill addresses that
staff members of all state universities are first answerable squarely.”
to the chancellor and then to the vice chancellor (VC), and
also that the governor will be the vice chancellor of those Aroon Purie, Editor on the passing of the Women’s
universities which don’t have a VC currently. The notifica- Reservation Bill in Parliament (India Today, October
2)
tion also specifically states that any instruction from the
state higher education department or state government will “Coal is likely to play a role for the next
be valid only if the vice chancellor clears it.
Unsurprisingly on Sep- two decades, given the current project
tember 5, chief minis- development pipelines and the cost of
ter Mamata Banerjee alternatives.”
lashed out at Governor Karthik Ganesan, fellow and director, research
Bose for his “interference” coordination, Council on Energy, Environment and
with the administration Water (Mint, October 3)
of state-run universities,
stating that an “economic “The issue that will be decided is whether
blockade” of universities Generative AI models have the right to scrape
to follow the governor’s di- content on the internet without permission
rectives is a possibility. In and then generate fresh content by training on
a first step on September Governor Bose & Banerjee (left) content created by humans without obtaining
21, the state government their permission or paying them anything.”
has decided to pay the salaries of vice chancellors, teach- Prosenjit Datta, founder of Prosaic View, an editorial
ers and other employees in state-aided universities directly consultancy (Business Standard, October 3)
into their accounts, instead of via the university’s account
as per established practice. “In his heart there was a farmer. The success
West Bengal’s academy, including three faculty rep- of his works is not restricted to their academic
resentative organisations — the leftist West Bengal Col- excellence; it lies in the impact they have
lege and University Teachers’ Association (WBCUTA),
Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association (JUTA) and had outside the laboratories, in the farms
the All Bengal University Teachers’ Association (ABUTA) and the fields. His work narrowed the gap
— expressed alarm over this stand-off between the gov- between scientific knowledge and its practical
ernor — a Central government appointee — and the state application.”
government. WBCUTA president Subhoday Dasgupta, ac- Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a tribute to M.S.
cused the ruling TMC and Raj Bhavan of undermining the Swaminathan, India’s pioneer agriculture scientist
autonomy of universities through “illegal interference”. who died on September 28 (Times of India, October
ABUTA’s general secretary Goutam Maity says there’s been 7)

24 EDUCATIONWORLD OCTOBER 2023