Mita Mukherjee

The West Bengal government has started a survey to collect detailed information on different parameters in the 2024 -25 undergraduate admissions in the state.

After introducing the system of admitting students in undergraduate courses through a centralized online portal from this year, the state government has decided to collect information on number of successful students in the Higher Secondary (Class XII) examination from each higher secondary school in the state, how many of the passed students have applied through the centralized admission portal from each institution, the number of students not applied from individual schools and among the students who have applied, how many are actually willing to study general degree courses in the state colleges.

The survey aims to find out the major reasons behind students not applying through the centralized portal. Such as whether the students are reluctant to continue to study because of health issues or financial problems in the family or whether they are interested in pursuing professional courses instead of studying conventional courses under the arts, science and commerce streams.

Through the survey the government is also collecting data on how many students will be leaving the state for higher education and what are the courses they would want to study in other states.

For collecting the information from the students the government has engaged heads of higher secondary schools. The heads have been asked to individually contact all the students who have cleared the Class XII exams from their institutions this year. After collecting the information, the heads will have to provide the details to the government online by filling up dedicated Google forms.

A senior official of the state higher education department said this is the first time the government has launched the centralized admission portal for undergraduate admissions and the response is “huge”.

According to him, though the survey intends to cover a number of parameters of undergraduate admission, the main purpose of the exercise is to find out whether the new system has really helped the students to seek admission to the undergraduate courses without any hassle.

 “School heads have been asked to inform the government how many students who have cleared the Class XII exams from their institutions were contacted by them to collect the information. The schools have been asked to ensure that they don’t leave out even a single student,” the official said.

Bengal had been facing a crisis of seats remaining vacant in state-aided colleges and universities over the past several years indicating an exodus of students from the state.

“Exodus of students is a matter of concern. The survey will give us an opportunity to identify the exact reasons behind the trend,” an official of the state higher education department said. 

The schools have been directed to provide the details of students who have said that they have not applied for a course because they couldn’t access the portal.

However, several heads said they were facing a lot of difficulties in contacting the students who have already passed the Class XII board examinations and the additional work was affecting the routine administrative and academic activities of their institutions.

Also read: Bengal: Teacher crisis in Classes XI, XII in state-aided schools