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no change since the rule of the CPM- routed the Left Front government in an additional 15,000 full-time profes-
led Left Front government when the the summer of 2011. But these high sors. Yet instead of recruiting full-time
teachers’ community and VCs were hopes have evaporated. Instead of faculty, the government has resorted
told that their remuneration was de- introducing polar opposite economic, to appointing part-time professors
pendent upon the pleasure of the state social and education policies, Baner- paying Rs.100-300 per class. As a re-
government. jee has replicated the Left government sult, youth are losing confidence in the
In this connection, it is pertinent by continuing to neglect primary-sec- higher education system.
to note the CPM (Communist Party ondary and higher education in the Comments Partha Pratim Roy,
of India-Marxist)-led Left Front gov- state even as TMC’s Chhatra Parishad general secretary of JUTA: “In the on-
ernment which uninterruptedly (mis) (youth wing) has been given a free run going tussle, higher education insti-
ruled West Bengal for 34 years (1977- to take on entrenched CPM-affiliated tutions are being rendered helpless.
2011), levelled down the state’s once teachers and students’ unions. Under Raj Bhavan rule, gag-orders on
envied education system through per- Meanwhile with teachers recruit- university academics banning them
sistent interference and by giving a free ment in school education at a stand- from criticising policies of the state
run to its mixed-up intellectuals, youth still because of court orders following and Union government are imminent.
wing and apparatchiks to run amok interference in TET (teacher eligibility The state government and the gover-
within the state’s higher education test) by top TMC ministers in a major nor must keep their focus on improv-
institutions. In the process, Bengal’s scam, because of insufficient budget ing the academic environment and re-
higher education institutions, which allocations for higher education the specting institutional autonomy which
right up to the 1970s were renowned state’s 433 undergrad colleges have is critical to ensure quality education.”
countrywide for scholarship and re- 13,547 full-time professors against Meanwhile, in the stand-off be-
search, were run into the ground. the sanctioned 30,000. According to tween the governor and the state gov-
Against this backdrop, there were informed academics in Kolkata, with ernment, West Bengal’s once hallowed
great expectations within West Ben- four-year undergrad courses intro- colleges and universities are caught in
gal’s intelligentsia and academics duced under the National Education a downward spiral.
after the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC Policy (NEP) 2020, Bengal will need Baishali Mukherjee (Kolkata)

OCTOBER 2023 EDUCATIONWORLD 25