Kolkata: West Bengal Higher Education Minister Jagannath Chattopadhyay on Tuesday told the Assembly that the state government was not against private participation in education but will ensure that education is not turned into a commodity.
He said the state government was trying to secure for West Bengal one of the five university townships announced by the Centre.
Presenting a budgetary outlay of Rs 7,168 crore for 2026-27 for the state’s Higher Education department, Chattopadhyay said the government will try to rope in well-known universities from other parts of the country and foreign colleges to set up facilities in Bengal.
It will help students looking for admissions in reputed universities in other parts of India and abroad get better education opportunities in the state itself, the minister said.
He said while the government was not against private participation in education, “it will ensure that education is not turned into a commodity in the state”.
A scholarship in the name of Swami Vivekananda will soon be announced for meritorious students going abroad for higher education, he said, adding that the government will give girl students Rs 50,000 in instalments for them to complete their higher education.
He said Bengal did not join 76 central higher education schemes during the previous dispensation only because they had ‘PM’ at the beginning of the name. Under the BJP government, the state has joined all these schemes, Chattopadhyay said.
Participating in a discussion in the House on the budget proposal for the department, CPI(M) MLA Md Mostafijur Rahaman said the number of colleges and universities increased in the state during the TMC rule, giving an impression that higher education in the state was reaching newer heights, but the real picture was quite dismal.
Maintaining that politicisation of college management during the previous TMC government severely affected the higher education system in West Bengal, the CPI(M) MLA urged the higher education minister to rectify these issues.
Unregulated fee hike in mushrooming private colleges in the state over the last 15 years must be checked to provide students with affordable education, he said and sought proper utilisation of the budget outlay for the school and higher education departments.
BJP MLA Samarendra Nath Ghosh said the budget proposals aim to regain West Bengal’s lost glory in education and congratulated the higher education department for proposing to set up six women’s colleges in the state.
He said one college should be set up in each district to proliferate women’s education.
Jamuria MLA Bijan Kumar Mukherjee said although much is said regarding the welfare of the Adivasis, they are lagging in higher education. Setting up a board to spread higher education among the Adivasi people in the state would help achieve the goal of imparting education to all, he said.
Minister Chattopadhyay maintained the BJP government “inherited a rotten higher education system” in West Bengal.
Stating that 31 state-aided universities were set up during the Mamata Banerjee government, he said that in reality most were without even basic infrastructure or teachers and only a minuscule number of students.
Giving an example, he said Darjeeling Hill University has 39 students and was set up in an Industrial Training Institute (ITI) facility.
Chattopadhyay said two universities were set up within 20 kilometres in Falakata in north Bengal’s Alipurduar district, stating that both are in bad shape. Union rooms in some colleges had been turned into dens of vice during the previous dispensation, he said.
The higher education minister said the state’s gross enrollment ratio, a statistical metric used in education to measure the overall participation capacity of an education system, has gone down to 26 per cent below the national average of 30 per cent during the last 15 years.
Stating that the government will take steps to increase the remuneration of qualified lecturers teaching in colleges on a temporary basis, he said it will also contemplate action regarding those who do not have the minimum qualification.
He said the government will not allow anyone with only the bare minimum marks in their master’s degrees to teach in colleges. PTI
