Can a Geography teacher or a teacher of resource study and secretarial practices take M.Com classes? No.
But that is just what’s happening at Goenka College of Commerce and Business Administration, run directly by the state government. The M.Com course has been introduced in the college recently.
College principal Asthir Dasgupta has drafted the geography and secretarial practices teachers for taking M.Com classes, depriving two teachers who have been recruited for the management department.
What surprises many in the college even more is that these teachers for the management department have been selected by the Public Service Commission (PSC).
The college head of the department of business organisation and management Benoy Bhusan Chakraborty has recently written to Calcutta University (CU) vice-chancellor Ashis Banerjee, opposing the principal’s decision.
Chakraborty has also sought the vice-chancellor’s intervention in the matter.
Principal Dasgupta, when contacted over the telephone on Sunday, said he had no idea about the letter written to the vice-chancellor by the college’s head of the department.
“I don’t know anything about the letter. If the letter is submitted to the vice-chancellor, he will certainly take up the issue with me. So far, no one from the university has contacted me,” Dasgupta added.
Trinamul Congress MLA Sovandeb Chatterjee raised the issue in the state Assembly during the recently-concluded budget session of the House.
Another party MLA, Sougata Roy, who is also the president of the Nationalist Democratic Teachers’ Association, wrote to higher education minister Satyasadhan Chakraborty, pointing out the matter.
Sources in the college said the PSC had recruited four teachers for the management department. But the principal is not allowing two of them to take M.Com classes.
“It is strange that the principal is not allotting classes to the two teachers who have been appointed for the management department. Instead, he is giving the M.Com classes to the geography teacher and the teacher of secretarial practices. We really can’t understand the logic behind this,” said a teacher of the college, on condition of anonymity.
“I am apprehensive about the fate of the M.Com students who opt to study the subject in our college,” said the teacher.
Sources in the university said that senior campus officials are surprised over the principal’s decision to engage geography teachers for M.Com classes.
These officials are more concerned because the principal is not allowing two teachers recruited by the PSC to take their classes.
The M.Com course was introduced in the college on a decision taken by CU. The university has decided to start master’s-level courses in some select under-graduate colleges to enable more students to study for a post-graduate degree.
For example, Presidency College is running post-graduate classes in a few science and arts subjects. Moulana Azad College, too, is teaching post-graduate classes. Recently, Goenka College introduced post-graduate courses in commerce.
