Government Is Extreme Serious About Higher Education: Vivek Kumar

Kolkata, March 08: Mr. Vivek Kumar; Principal Secretary, Department of Higher Education, Government of West Bengal officially inaugurated the 5^th 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.