Students with inadequate attendance to miss first semester exams of Calcutta university

KOLKATA: Principals in colleges where students have failed to meet the stipulated 60 percent attendance criteria to take their first semester examinations have refused to make any concessions sending out a signal that there was no alternative to attending classes regularly.

The firm resolve of the principals means several thousand students across colleges in the city and its suburbs will not be able to take their examinations this semester.

Educationists are viewing the stance of principals of not buckling under pressure tactics of students along with the tough stance the state government took in the beginning of this academic session by shifting the entire admission process online to eliminate efforts of extortion by students' unions as a step to introduce more discipline and transparency in the higher education system.

Last month students of colleges like Jaipuria, St Paul's Cathedral Mission, Umesh Chandra College (Evening), Behala College, Sarsuna College, Heremba Chandra College and Shibnath Shastri College resorted to arm-twisting tactics like laying siege to colleges and blocking roads after being barred from taking exams. State education minister Partha Chatterjee however stressed on a zero-tolerance approach.

• Last week students of Mirzapur City college laid an overnight siege when they were barred from taking exams.
• Earlier this month first year students of Shibnath Shastri and Heremba Chandra college blocked Golpark crossing on December 1 after being barred from taking exams due to inadequate attendance
• Two factions of TMCP clash on November 24 alleging union is extorting money to help circumvent the mandatory attendance rule
• Attendance register at Jaipuria went missing on Nov 26 after 60 students were barred from taking their exams because they did not have 60 percent attendance.
• On November 27 there were clashes at Behala college after which union was dissolved

"The admit cards have already been distributed and those who did not have sufficient attendance have not been given the admit cards," said Nabanita Chakraborty, principal of Heramba Chandra College where students laid siege to the college and blocked Gol park Crossing for several hours to force the college to change its decision. Police had to escort the principal out of the college due to the protesting students. More than 400 students of the college do not have the mandatory 60 percent attendance.

Under the CBCS system, twenty marks are set aside for internal assessment in every honours and pass paper, of which 10 are for attendance while the remaining 10 for performance in the internal examinations in the colleges. Students will get six marks for attendance between 60 and 74 per cent, eight marks between 74 and 90 per cent and 10 marks for attendance over 90 percent.

Asok Mukhopadahyay, principal of Seth Anandaram Jaipuria College, where the entire attendance register went missing after the college barred 60 odd students from appearing for their first semester exams, said: "There is no change in our stance. Students who do not have the mandatory attendance are not being allowed to take the examinations."

At Shibnath Shastri College where almost 250 students out of the total 450 students in the commerce stream do not meet the stipulated attendance. "We had informed the students at the beginning of the session that under the new CBCS attendance is mandatory," said a senior official.

At Umesh Chandra College, authorities conducted special classes every day and even took undertaking from guardians that their wards will attend classes regularly.

"We will not compromise on attendance. We helped students to shore up their attendance by organising special classes. At the beginning of the session we had taken undertakings from guardians that their wards will attend classes regularly," said Mohammad Tofzzal Haque, principal of Umesh Chandra College.

Some of the colleges where students resorted to agitation are highly politicised in nature with the union many times prevailing over the college authorities.

But this time the government warned students union and agitating students at the very initial stage of protests that the state would not bend rules for those who failed to attain the mandatory 60 percent attendance and had been disqualified from appearing for the part 1 first semester examinations.