Summary
College heads worry as process yet to begin
Clarity on the introduction of the centralised online admission system will emerge early next week, an official of the state education department said on Saturday.
Undergraduate admission in government and government-aided colleges has not begun in the absence of an understanding of whether it will be the new system or the colleges will admit students on their own as part of the existing mechanism.
It has been over a month since the publication of the plus-II board results.
The delay, several college principals said, had left them worried because autonomous and minority colleges, which the department earlier said would be out of the purview of the centralised portal, have almost completed their admission process.
Manas Kabi, the principal of Asutosh College, said: “We are deeply worried as
the admissions have yet to begin.”
The principal of another college in south Calcutta said the department held an online meeting with heads of colleges to take stock of the subject combination the colleges will offer and the fee structure.
“They said these exercises were part of the centralised admission portal. But until a formal notification comes, we cannot be sure,” the principal said.
The department has been deferring the rollout of the centralised portal since 2022.
In the existing standalone mechanism, a candidate applying for an undergraduate course has to log into the websites of individual institutions and apply.
In the proposed system, an aspirant can apply to multiple colleges by logging into a single portal.
The system is also intended to eliminate the intervention of the students’ unions in the admission process.
Tilak Chatterjee, the principal of Bankim Sardar College in South 24-Parganas, said the heads of the colleges have been told by officials associated with the centralised portal to check whether the data fed by the colleges had been uploaded exactly on the portal.
“The officials said they would lock the portal on June 8. After this, the colleges cannot make any changes to their data,” said Chatterjee.
Calls and text messages to education minister Bratya Basu and the education secretary, Manish Jain, failed to elicit any response till late on Saturday.
A platform of college principals on May 20 wrote to minister Basu about the delay in starting undergraduate admissions in most colleges.
Purna Chandra Maity, the president of the All Bengal Principals’ Council, said: “The clarity on whether the colleges will admit through the centralised portal or on their own must be given by early next week. Any further delay will spell doom for colleges.”
Last updated on 09 Jun 2024
