Kolkata: Strict enforcement of teachers’ attendance at state-aided colleges was a crucial step to restore the academic environment at institutes before bringing students back to campuses, state higher education minister Jagannath Chattopadhyay said on Tuesday.
Chattopadhyay was speaking at a two-day workshop, held to discuss the rollout of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, where he instructed state university vice-chancellors to ensure teachers at affiliated colleges conducted classes regularly.
The higher education department would soon start physical inspections of higher education institutes to monitor their infrastructure and compliance, said Chattopadhyay, adding that an inquiry into certain state universities was on and strict measures would be taken if anything was found.
Addressing institutional discipline, Chattopadhyay said, “If any professor’s forum or association creates obstacles to college teachers performing their duties, alert me directly and action will be taken.” Even as he urged VCs to take charge as institutional heads to re-establish work culture without requiring intervention from Bikash Bhavan, he said “trade unionism would not be allowed to compromise on education”.
Also present at the event was governor and ex-officio chancellor R N Ravi, who underscored the need to preserve university autonomy while regaining past academic glory. On concerns raised by Hindi University VC Nandini Sahu on operational hurdles faced by younger institutes, Ravi blamed the previous govt’s oversights but assured her of corrective steps.
