Mamata directs education dept to prepare vision documents

Officials of joint secretary level and above of the department were present in the meeting. Chatterjee said after the meeting that the vision documents will be prepared following the recommendations of the education commission and the vision documents will help to bring further development in the education system of the state. Stress will also be given on information technology based education.

He said the rate of admission has gone up in both Madhyamik and Higher Secondary level. Thus further development of the infrastructure to provide quality education to all is another key area.

The rate of admission in all levels have witnessed a sharp rise after the state education department had taken various steps in the past four years, said Chatterjee adding that it had gone up to 17.5 per cent as against only 11 per cent during the Left Front regime. 

The target of the state government is to take up the rate to 21 per cent which is the present mark in the Centre.  All steps to increase the admission rate by another 3.5 per cent within the stipulated time will be taken. Number of seats in graduation level has reached to 4 lakh and engineering seats has 

gone up to 36,000.

In connection with the role of students’ unions when the admission process goes on in colleges, Chatterjee said that members of the students’ unions can extend help to new comers if they want. But admission in colleges will take place based on the merit of the students.

He said in the same breath that the process of appointment of permanent vice chancellors in place of ad-hoc ones. On Saturday, Partha Chatterjee had said that the state government will soon set up a monitoring committee to study the quality of education in private institutions.

Chatterjee had said names of the committee members would be announced later. He said it was essential to find out the quality of education which was imparted to students in private academic institutions.

More and more private institutions are coming up in the state and often complaints are made about the faculty. It has often been found that most of the faculty members are retired teachers. The students who take admission in these institutions are swayed by the infrastructure and ambiance but the quality of teaching in many cases is not up to the mark.