Many government and government-aided colleges have announced rosters for classes during the Puja vacation so students enrolled late could be prepared for the first semester examination due in January.

Colleges admitted students until September 30 independently to fill vacant seats after the completion of the admission through the centralised portal conducted by the education department.

The first-semester examination is due in January and the Puja vacation has already started in colleges.

The heads of the colleges said if the classes were not held during the Puja vacation, those who have taken late admission would struggle to write the first-semester
examination.

Asutosh College and Lady Brabourme College will hold classes through a combination of online and offline classes from October 21 to October 30.

The principal of Lady Brabourne College said that in addition to this, they plan to hold additional classes each day from November 15 before the start of class hours and after the end of class hours to help students prepare for the exam .

The centralised counselling, involving two rounds, started on June 24 and lasted until September 7.

Classes for those who enrolled in the first round started in early August. Those enrolled in the second round started on September 8.

“The four-year undergraduate courses have started from last year in keeping with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. This has made the four-year undergraduate course more exhaustive. Suppose the students who have been admitted till September 30, do not attend classes during the Puja vacation. In that case, they will find it difficult to write the first-semester examination,” said Manas Kabi, the principal of Asutosh College.

“Classes during the Puja vacation are also a must so the late entrants can keep pace with those whose classes have started much earlier”.

Classes in the government-aided colleges will resume in early November when the Puja vacation ends.

The undergraduate course was a three-year duration until the 2022-23 academic year.

As the Bengal government approved NEP, the duration expanded to four years.

“Classes will be held in blended mode during the Puja vacation. We have left it to the teachers and students to decide whether they want to attend classes physically or online. As the government colleges would open on November 15, we are planning to hold additional classes each day from mid-November during zero hours — before the start of class hours and after the end of class hours — to help students get prepared,” said Seuli Sarkar, the principal of Lady Brabourne College.

The principals said if the education department started the centralised online portal immediately after the publication of the school-leaving examination results in early May, they would have had more class hours.

The department launched the portal more than one and a half months after the Class XII board results had been published because of some logistical issues.

This led to a delayed start of classes this year.

“Because of this, the colleges are now forced to hold classes even during the Puja vacation partially for those who got admitted till September 30,” said Purna Chandra Maity, the secretary of the All Bengal Principals’ Council.

The department introduced the centralised portal for undergraduate admissions instead of allowing the institutions to enrol students on their own from the beginning so fewer seats remained vacant.

Still a little over four lakh of nine lakh undergraduate seats remained vacant after the centralised counselling and the delayed start of the portal was held responsible for this by the principals.