‘Politics minus education’: Why West Bengal colleges are wary of govt-appointed governing body presidents

A large section of West Bengal’s colleges are bracing for change. Late last month, the new BJP government nominated new presidents for governing bodies of 247 government-aided colleges, nearly all of them BJP members of parliament or legislative assembly (MP and MLA). With that has come fears of political interference in key college matters such as recruitment, infrastructure maintenance and expansion, handling of staff issues and more.

The new appointees selected by the West Bengal Higher Education Department include Rashbehari MLA Swapan Dasgupta as president of Asutosh College; Nadia MP Jagannath Sarkar as president of Chakdaha College; Purba Medinipur MP Abhijit Gangopadhyay as president of Mahishadal Raj College; and Darjeeling MP Raju Bista as president of Bijanbari College. They have replaced administrators appointed by the BJP government who had replaced presidents appointed by the previous TMC government after their tenures ended.

Most colleges would have preferred full-fledged academics as presidents and some have got highly-educated ones. But, as per details collated by the Association for Democratic Reforms, the new governing body presidents also include a private tutor, one with a Class 10 qualification, a primary school teacher, several business or self-employed people, a ‘spiritual speaker’ with a law degree, a ‘dharma guru’ with 23 criminal cases, a school headmaster, several lawyers, a peon at a government aided school, one engaged in cultivation and others.

However, principals and teachers from colleges across institutions – Calcutta University , Kalyani University, University of Burdwan, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology (MAKAUT) and more – say a president’s effectiveness also depends on the individual and how they work with the college. They say academic understanding, administrative experience and the ability to work with the government will matter as new governing bodies take charge.

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West Bengal: College president’s key role

The law allowing the state government to pick college governing body presidents was enacted by the previous Trinamool Congress government in 2017.

As per the West Bengal Universities and Colleges (Administration and Regulation) Act, 2017, a governing body should have a president, nominated by the state government; the principal, vice-principal or teacher-in-charge is the ex-officio secretary; three full-time regular teachers, including librarians and laboratory instructors; one non-teaching employee; three higher education nominees of whom two are nominated by the state government and one by the West Bengal State Council of Higher Education; one donor; two persons nominated by the affiliating university of whom one should be a woman; and one student representative.

The former principal of Chittaranjan College, affiliated to Calcutta University, Shayamalendu Chatterjee said, “The president has the most important role. He or she makes decisions. The principal is the secretary, which means he executes the decisions after consulting the other members of the governing body.” The decisions cover nearly every critical aspect of running a college – recruitment, funds, infrastructure, staff and student issues.

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“The president has immense power. He is the first signatory. In the absence of the president, a designated nominee can sign. The next important person is the secretary. The president is responsible for recruitment, infrastructure and what all needs to be bought for a college. The president takes a call,” he said.

According to Chatterjee, the system was different before 2017. “Prior to that, the president would be elected by 10 nominated members of the university and the president to be elected would have had no role in the aided colleges prior to the election,” he said.

Giving the example of Chittaranjan College, Chatterjee said Dr Pranab Bhowmick, a paediatrician, had served as president for more than 15 years. The system began to change in the second half of 2016, with politicians increasingly being appointed as presidents.

Concern with college governing bodies

A former principal of a Kolkata college affiliated to Calcutta University, speaking on condition of anonymity, raised concerns about the current composition of governing bodies.

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“There are presidents in around 250 colleges and I believe that the rest of the colleges will also get presidents before the Puja holidays. But my question is: will the presidents alone sign? Will no other discussions take place? Because the colleges do not have the other nominees — government nominees, teachers’ representatives, university nominees or non-teaching staff nominees. Only the president and the principal are there,” the former principal said.

They fear that this system could lead to still more centralised decision-making. “As long as these representatives are there, students are there in the discussion, the democratic setup works. This is the problem,” the former principal said.

Only ‘political background’ not enough

Another Kolkata college ex-principal, questioned whether the present government had enough people with the academic and administrative experience required to head governing bodies.

“Two nominees of the university means two teachers of the university who are highly qualified. They know the rules and regulations of the governing body. I do not want to demean anybody, but only with a political background to occupy that chair, it is impossible,” they said.

They said governing bodies should have people with academic and administrative expertise, along with representatives of teachers, non-teaching staff from the university.

“The Left or the Trinamool were comparatively strong, but for the BJP, I am sorry to say, this is a bottleneck. In my few months of experience, I have seen they do not have that expertise,” they said.

They also criticised the present system of appointing administrators to run colleges before the new governing bodies were constituted. “After the recent government came to power, they dismantled the governing bodies and placed administrators with the power of a president as the head of the governing bodies,” they said. Now the administrators have been replaced with presidents.

The college system in West Bengal is already creaking under pressure. Teacher recruitment has been stalled for six years, under both TMC and now BJP. The principal said there are around 5,000 vacant teaching posts.

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“What I am seeing these days is that whenever whichever government comes to power, they impose their rules and regulations on educational institutions,” said another teacher, based in Murshidabad. “The college had earlier had district-level administrators, including the district magistrate, and later principals, teachers-in-charge or professors from other colleges as governing body presidents. They were regarded as persons interested in education. If there is someone who has this expertise, then it will be great. My college is doing great and it will do great whichever government comes to power.”

Easing admin work

But having someone close to the ruling dispensation can occasionally help as well. The head of a Kolkata college said having a political leader as president had helped speed up administrative work. “There were times that a college had to run around 10 times to get administrative work done. Because of him, things got done at one go. This was really very, very helpful,” the principal said.

The president also exerted political influence in that he didn’t allow any political discussions inside the college. The principal said the former president also kept politics away from the college and advised against political discussions inside the institution.

Another Kolkata teacher is more apprehensive. “Shob golmele hoye gelo, shob golmele,” he said, everything is a mess.

“Why should people in politics be members or heads of governing bodies of colleges? Very few people have an academic background and, on top of that, they do not know administration,” the professor said.

Plus, as was evident from the controversy at Jadavpur University , the present government treats educational institutions with suspicion . “They are doubtful about everything that is being done in the educational institutions. This is regressive and not at all progressive,” the professor said. “Every educationist, government servant is very scared now. And when people are scared, no development takes place.”

West Bengal: ‘Political power minus education’

A professor at one of West Bengal’s leading universities, speaking on condition of anonymity, said political leadership should not interfere with the functioning of educational institutions.

“It is very difficult when a political leader is sitting on your head. Colleges and universities are places where students can think and work freely. In such places, a political body should not be there because debate and discussion will not be possible then. Whatever the government wants, only that will happen,” the professor said. “They said they wanted education free from politics, but what has actually happened is only political power minus education in the educational institutions. This is not Uttar Pradesh or Madhya Pradesh, the students, the common man and the media are very strong here. They will not stoop that low.”

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North Bengal University B.Ed colleges

A former principal of a government-aided college in Darjeeling, who recently retired said the college had earlier functioned well under an academic who served as its governing body president. Now it has an MP.

“We had an academic as a president and he understood the requirements of the college very well,” they said. “Now the new president that we have is an MP. It is very early to comment on his work. Let’s hope for the best.”

A teacher at government-aided B.Ed college in north Bengal said, “If an educationist is there, they know the value of education. Political people only create problems”.