'Lack of initiative in maintaining quality education in Bengal'

Trinamool Congress leader and former West Bengal Science and Technical Education Minister Rabiranjan Chattopadhyay on Wednesday said the quality of higher education in the state has fallen and there is a lack of initiative in maintaining the quality.

"During our time, education had a certain standard. That is no longer there. Our job is to maintain the quality in education sector. Our government is working in that regard but in some cases there is a lack of initiative in maintaining the quality of education," said Chattopadhyay outside the state assembly.

"The government is not solely responsible for looking after education in all the places. The society, teachers and the autonomous bodies that run the universities also have some responsibility," he said.

He said the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) alone is not sufficient for evaluating the quality of education and insisted that a state level survey is necessary.

"I have earlier said that the NAAC alone is not sufficient to supervise the education system as it is an advisory body under the UGC that conducts survey. I feel it would be better if a state level survey is also conducted," he said.

Chattopadhyay also criticised the Presidency University claiming that the quality of the institution has sharply dipped in recent times.

"Presidency was at a certain level earlier. In my personal experience that standard is no longer there," he said.

Earlier, during the budgetary discussion for the higher education department in the state assembly, the Trinamool Congress leader expressed concern over certain untoward incidents in various state educational institutions.

He also said spending money in the education sector would not be of any help if the quality of higher education in the state cannot be improved by that.

--IANS

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