Partha inaugurates Vidyasagar Academy

Kolkata: The bicentenary celebration of Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was observed in the city and districts with enthusiasm on Thursday.

State Education minister Partha Chatterjee inaugurated the Vidyasagar Academy and released two books, namely Amader Vidyasagar and Chotoder Vidyasagar, to create awareness about the life and work of Vidyasagar among the students and youths.

A bronze statue of Vidyasagar was installed at Vidyasagar College during the day. The state government has already created the Vidyasagar Chair at Calcutta University and Vidyasagar University.

It may be recalled that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has recently announced that Birsingha village in West Midnapore will come up as an educational tourist hub. A gate will also be installed at the entrance of the village.

Meanwhile, the teachers of Bengali have urged the government to introduce the same spelling for some Bengali words across the state. They said that different dictionaries are giving different spellings and this is creating confusion among the students and the teachers.

The teachers who correct the Bengali scripts of Madhyamik, Higher Seccondary examinations and even exams at the graduation and post-graduation level, find it difficult to check the spellings.

They maintained that the state government should publish a book to bring symmetry in spelling, which should be followed in every school and college in the state.

Vidyasagar had played a major role in spreading Bengali among the children. He wrote Barnaparichay to introduce Bengali alphabets to the school-goers. He also wrote Byakaron Kaumadi to introduce school children to Sanskrit. He had translated several English and Sanskrit books to Bengali as well.

Vidyasagar had set up 32 schools for girls in a span of 10 years. He was also the key figure in introducing widow remarriage. He set up Metropolitan School and Metropolitan College, which later became Vidyasagar College, the country's first private college.