Calcutta University Advises Colleges To Hold Classes During Summer Break To Complete Syllabus

Calcutta University has sent an advisory to its affiliated colleges, asking them to hold classes during the summer holidays to catch up on lost academic time and finish the undergraduate syllabus for the 2024-25 session. The action comes amid delays in the academic calendar due to last year's uncertainty over the undergraduate admission process.

Usually, UG admissions start immediately after the announcement of the Class 12 state board results. In 2023, though, the process was delayed by almost a month owing to doubts regarding whether or not the admissions would be centralized or decentralized. Even though the choice of utilizing a centralized portal was finally made, the delay shifted the opening of classes significantly.

To enable the colleges to overcome the academic backlog, CU Registrar Debasis Das informed that the institutions have the autonomy to hold such additional classes in offline, online, or hybrid modes, based on their resources and choice, as reported by news agency PTI.

But some of them have already started preparing themselves. Lady Brabourne College principal Siuli Sarkar said that they already started their summer vacation, and now it depends on individual teachers to conduct online or offline classes.

Jaideep Sarangi, the CU chapter president of All Bengal Principals Council, stressed that communication from the university is not mandatory but advisory, like measures to complete the syllabus taken in the past, as reported by PTI. Though implementation is at the discretion of every college, it remains to be seen whether other universities in West Bengal will adopt similar measures.