Will set up Biswa Bangla varsity in Santiniketan, says Mamata

The state government will set up a Biswa Bangla university in Santiniketan, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced on Saturday.

She was addressing the first ever state level teachers’ convention in Netaji Indoor stadium on Saturday afternoon. A similar convention for primary and secondary teachers will also be held, she said. The university will come up at the proposed Gitabitan township. “The survey of the land is complete and it will be situated very close to Visva Bharati”, she said.

Banerjee announced the retirement age of teachers at 62, extending it by two years and said that vacant posts in colleges and universities will be filled up in 6 months. Teachers with 10 years experience will get Leave Travel Allowance to travel within the country while those with 20 years experience will get money to go foreign countries as specified by the state government. Moreover, teachers doing research will get 24 months leave without pay facility.

She said teachers from foreign countries would be brought to the state to show the talents of the students. “We have talents and we need to give publicity,” she said adding: “Instead of giving false publicity, we should highlight the real achievements.” Recalling her experience, she said that she had asked her niece, who was a former student of Presidency University, who is now doing higher studies that whether she had faced any difficulty in understanding her subject, and she replied that here the teachers had taught her well and so she was not facing any problem at all. “Her reply made me really happy. We have good teachers and best talents and I urge the teachers to coach students so that they come back to their motherland after gathering knowledge abroad.”

Referring to demonetisation she said this had affected the growth of the state and there was heavy loan burden on the state but despite that, the state government had set up 16 more universities taking their total number to 29 with 46 new colleges had come up during her regime. She said the teachers would be covered under West Bengal Health Scheme and part time teachers and non teaching staff will be covered under Swastha Sathi scheme.

Before sitting on the podium, she went to Professor Shib Ranjan Chattopadhyay who taught her political science in Asutosh College. “He was my teacher and we were very naughty but he used to look after us and pacify us when we argued on different topics. The teachers should be shown the same respect as parents”, she said. She also inaugurated the website of Paschimbanga Pustak Parsad.

Suranjan Das, vice chancellor of Jadavpur University said there should be a close connection between schools and higher education. Anuradha Lohia, vice chancellor of Presidency University said that the university would upload the lectures delivered by the teachers who would come to the city and speak on higher education in connection with the bicentenary of Presidency University for the benefit of the teachers of other universities and colleges.