Undergraduate classes in government and aided colleges finally began on Friday with candidates from the first merit list, less than a month before the Puja vacation.
According to education department sources, classes started in 464 colleges with 2.24 lakh students, filling only about 24% of Bengal’s total 9.40 lakh seats.
Many college principals attributed the poor response to the delayed admission process. Admissions could only begin after the Supreme Court stayed, on August 22, a Calcutta High Court order that had barred the implementation of new OBC reservation rules framed by the Bengal government. The new rules were notified on June 8.
Teachers expressed concern about covering the syllabus on time, given the late start.
Lady Brabourne College principal Siuli Sarkar reported having just 215 first-year students against 629 available seats.
“We are most concerned about completing the syllabus because Puja vacation in government colleges begins on September 20 and classes resume only on November 6. To meet this challenge, we plan to hold classes both offline and online during the Puja break,” Sarkar said.
She added that the college has largely accepted that around 40% of seats will remain vacant, similar to last year.
“We don’t yet know if vacancies exceed last year’s 40%, but teachers are determined to put in extra effort to finish the syllabus on time so students can sit for first-semester exams in January,” Sarkar told Metro.
Sarkar’s apprehension about high seat vacancies at the marquee college raised questions about the situation at other institutions.
New Alipore College started classes on Friday with 766 students out of 2,200 seats. The Puja vacation here begins on September 26, with reopening scheduled after October 23.
“To complete the syllabus, teachers will conduct online classes during the Puja break,” said principal Joydeep Sarangi.
Several principals noted that government and aided colleges were beginning classes more than a month after autonomous and minority institutions.
Admissions for government and aided colleges were conducted through a centralised state-run portal.
Classes could only start after the Supreme Court lifted a stay on the June 8 OBC reservation norms, which grant 17% reservation to 140 categories under OBC-A and OBC-B subgroups.
Minority and autonomous institutions conducted admissions independently and were not delayed by court proceedings regarding the OBC reservations.