Kolkata: The state higher education department on Wednesday formed teams to visit private institutes, including BEd colleges, primary teachers training institutes and degree colleges, and evaluate classroom teaching, student enrolment and attendance. The inspection is meant to verify if private college students, who first pay high admission fees and then hefty semester fees, are receiving quality education.During the inspection, the teams will audit the institutes’ biometric entry systems, if any. At colleges that still follow a manual attendance system, the teams will verify the numbers against the total enrolment for each course. Officials will check CCTV footage of classrooms to see whether regular classes are being held or not and the average daily attendance. “We want to inspect the functioning of these institutes,” said a senior higher education department official. “Earlier, the department held such inspections only to issue an NOC before a private college was founded and no follow-up check was conducted. Now, this audit will check enrolments, attendance and the institutes’ regular functioning. We will check whether these colleges are providing quality education or they are functioning as making-money tools.”The move follows a recent meeting at Bikash Bhavan, which was attended by chief minister Suvendu Adhikari and Union education ministry officials. After the meeting, Adhikari said the govt would link the renewal of the colleges’ NOCs to their compliance with the prescribed standards.Private BEd colleges and primary teachers training institutes have come under the scanner following allegations of corruption and financial irregularities during the earlier govt’s tenure. “Out of 10 visitors, five want to open a college,” said Jagannath Chattopadhyay, higher education minister. “At a time when govt colleges are struggling to attract students, we must look into the reason behind the rush to open private institutes. We have nothing against those providing quality education, but we are against the sales of certificates.”An official said fresh applications to set up BEd, law, pharmacy and polytechnic colleges, submitted to the higher education department, would now have to wait for at least two years before an evaluation.The Association of Professional Academic Institutions (APAI-WB), an organization representing private engineering and technology colleges, welcomed the move. Taranjit Singh, president of the organization, said, “Ninety-five private college administrators are members of this organization. We fulfil all the parameters set by the AICTE every year. Engineering and technology colleges will not face any trouble as most are well established and produce quality students.”Soma Bandyopadhyay, former VC at Baba Saheb Ambedkar Education University, said, “I am happy to see that what I wanted to introduce for all private BEd colleges but failed to do so due to resistance from the previous govt is now being implemented by the new govt. During my tenure, affiliation of 253 BEd colleges was cancelled due to salary malpractices and the submission of false documents in teacher-student ratios. But those continued to function as no one stood by me, even after a court verdict.”
