Bihar’s state universities are again turning into a battleground for the state government and the Raj Bhawan over the implementation of the four-year integrated graduation programme with choice based credit system (CBCS) from the new academic session that has just started.
On Thursday, the new additional chief secretary (education) K K Pathak wrote a letter to the officer on special duty (judicial), Governor’s secretariat, Shailendra Shukla, with a copy to all the vice-chancellors, seeking reconsideration of the Governor’s letter for launching four-year graduation programme with CBCS, people familiar with the matter said.
“The state government does not support the aforementioned four-year programme and requests the Chancellor’s office to reconsider their May 15 letter. Given the circumstances, the state government is of the view that the universities should first complete the ongoing courses, particularly the delayed ones,” reads the letter sent on Friday, which has been seen by HT.
Soon after taking charge, Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar, who is also the chancellor of state universities, had called all vice chancellors and asked them not only to streamline the derailed exam calendar but also implement the four-year graduation programme with CBCS, a prerequisite in most of the central universities and premier institutions, from the current session itself to ensure uniformity in the state. He also asked the VCs of the state universities to stick to a uniform academic calendar.
After Raj Bhawan approved the ordinance for the four-year undergraduate course a month ago, the universities also started the process, while experts completed the curriculum and syllabus for the first two semesters. The academic council of the universities also passed the new pattern.
Patna University has already initiated the admission process.
The Raj Bhawan’s move is significant, as none of the Bihar universities had managed to implement the CBCS and semester system at the undergraduate level despite this being a common practice in most of the good universities.
KB Sinha, working president of the Federation of University Teachers’ Associations of Bihar, said the state government’s disapproval of the move of the Governor, who will return on Friday, could lead to confusion for universities at the start of the academic session.
“The Governor has been keen on introducing the four-year programme from this academic year itself. It remains to be seen how he responds,” he said.
In his letter, Pathak has written that most of the universities are lagging behind as per academic calendar and the capacity of the universities to conduct a new programme has to be seen in totality, particularly in terms of their ability to conduct and successfully complete the existing on-going programmes.
The letter also said mentioned an official gazette, issued during Pathak’s previous tenure eight years ago, on exam calendar.
“The state government expects the universities to strictly adhere to the gazette notification likely to be issued shortly and not to conduct any examination not duly notified by the state government,” the letter says.
