Kolkata, March
08: Mr. Vivek Kumar; Principal Secretary, Department of Higher
Education, Government of West Bengal officially inaugurated the 5th
Annual Convention of Higher Education Forum (HEF) in Kolkata today at Institute
of Leadership, Entrepreneurship And Development (ILEAD) campus. While speaking
in the occasion Mr. Kumar said that, “West Bengal Government is extremely
serious about the higher education and this year our state had jumped up in
national and international stage.” He also added that, “In the last 24 months
our state has introduced 32 colleges, 9 government general colleges only in
Midnapore, 2 government engineering college. We have introduced 6 universities
while in previous 66 years we have only 13. We are going to commence first ever
Women University in Diamond Harbour from July this year and 3 new Private
University will be on ramp within 2015-2016 academic year. In Presidency
University, State had implemented a lot like there are no limits of creating
vacancies and they had been given total freedom to create their own syllabus.
Presidency already has started the subject Life Science apart from Botany,
Zoology and Physiology and this is first time in India. There are scopes for
engage six professors from abroad and also they are giving education allowances
for abroad student. Government is in a search an internationally acclaimed Vice
Chancellor for Presidency through the interference of University Grant
Commission (UGC). An Education Commission led by Professor S.K. Brahmachari
will lay the blue-print about the steps the state should take to rise. A new
scheme ‘Rashtriya Uchchatara Shiksha Abhiyan’ will allocate huge funds in coming
five years. I believe that if you have quantity then you can’t have quality and
if you want quality then we have to forget about quantity. There must be
autonomy for the organizations but there must be accountability too.” The
convention also was graced by the dignitaries like Chairperson of HEF, Mr. A.K.
Sengupta; former Principal Adviser of Geneva International Trade Centre, Mr.
B.R. Bhandari and Chairman of ILEAD, Mr. Pradip Chopra.
