TMCP wins student union polls in Kolkata

TMCP wins student union polls in Kolkata

Posted on January 18, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

Trinamool Chhatra Parishad (TMCP) won over 90 per cent of the seats in the students’ union elections of Calcutta University held here on Saturday.

“Of the 750 seats, there was no contest in about 680 seats,” Swagata Sen, returning officer of the polls and Dean of Commerce of the University told journalists.

In the remaining 70 seats, about 40 were won by the Trinamool Chhatra Parishad (TMCP), while the BJP-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) won about 12 seats.

The Students Federation of India (SFI), the students wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), had to contend with only four seats.

The student wing of Congress Chhatra Parishad won three and Democratic Student Organisation won five seats in the contest.

TMCP President Ashok Rudra said that the reason for the victory was that other students unions had totally lost its base among students. He also told a newspaper: “Students are showering us with votes because of the huge amount of work done by West Bengal Government in the education sector, under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee.”

Primary education – Bengal shows the way

Posted on January 15, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

West Bengal is steadily coming out of the shadows of the CPM misrule in every sphere, be it education, health or industries.

The Annual Status of Education Reports 2014 (ASER) states that in the fields of reading English and Bengali and solving arithmetic at primary level, students of the State are far ahead of the National Average.

The survey was conducted among 5.70 lakh students aged between 3 and 16, from 16 thousand 497 villages of 577 districts in the country.

In the criteria where third standard students could read books of the first standard, the national average in 2012 had been 40.4 while Bengal’s average was 45.6. In the 2014 survey, the national average is 40.3 whereas the State’s average is 56.2.

In the criteria where fifth standard students could read books of the third standard, the national average in 2012 had been 48.3 while Bengal’s average was 48.9. In the 2014 survey, the national average is 48.1 whereas the State’s average is 53.1.

In the criteria where third standard students could do arithmetic like subtraction, the national average in 2012 had been 19.8 while Bengal’s average was 25.1. In the 2014 Survey, the national average has fallen to 17.3 whereas the State’s average rose to 33.0.

Incidentally, the school dropout rate among girl students has also decreased in the State after the introduction of Kanyashree project in 2012.

Image courtesy: The Hindu

Kanyashree impact: School dropout rate among girls falls in Bengal

Posted on January 9, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

That actions speak louder than words is exemplified yet again by West Bengal Chief Minister Ms Mamata Banerjee. Her vision is showcased through her mission. Kanyashree, the internationally acclaimed project started by the Government of West Bengal, has borne fruit.

According to data from the National Sample Survey 2014, the school dropout rate among girls in the State has come down. The report says that while the National average for school dropout rate for girls is 3.23%, the same for the State is 1.28%. In the 2009 survey, the figure stood at 2.34% for Bengal.

About the scheme

The Kanyashree Scheme was inaugurated by the Trinamool Congress government in October, 2013, with the express purpose of ensuring the education of girls and thereby preventing forced child marriage.

Under the scheme, the government provides an annual scholarship of Rs. 500 to girls between 12 and 18 years (class eight to class 12) to continue with their studies, provided they are unmarried. A one-time grant of Rs 25,000 is also provided to the girl, once she reaches the age of 18, to pursue higher studies.

International recognition

The project was applauded by UNICEF which partnered with the State for implementation. The project also received international recognition by the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID) and State representatives were invited to the London Girls’ Summit 2014 in to talk about the scheme in front of a global audience.

Social sector development: Bengal shows the way

Posted on January 7, 2015 | by admin2

Health Care, Education and Skill Development are core sectors where West Bengal made rapid progress in the last three years. The State, under the new Government had to revive and restructure the total infrastructure which had become almost non-existent. With continued efforts, the State made rapid progress by rebuilding the existing projects and creating newer avenues.

Health, Education, Skill development are also the focus areas for the Bengal Global Summit 2014, here is what the Government achieved in the last 3 years.

Health

34 multi speciality hospital being set up. Works for 13 hospitals have already started.
More than 63 fair price shops have been opened, discounts are provided at a range of 48% to 72%. More than 52 lakh people have benefitted. 47 fair price diagnostic centres have also been opened.
The number of Sick Newborn Care Units (SNCUs) have increased from 6 to 37 and the 198 new Sick Newborn Stabilisation units (SNSUs) have been set up.
The number of beds in Government has been increased by 10,000.
The number of medical seats for students (MBBS and Dental) has been doubled. 3 new medical colleges have being set up at Kamarhati, Malda and Murshidabad.
There has been a decrease of 20% in mortality rate of mothers during childbirth and institutional delivery has risen to 79%.
The percentage of the malnourished children of the total enrolled has decreased from 47.52% (2009-10) to 22.94% (2013-14).

Education

6 new universities are being opened up. Second campus of the North Bengal University is being set up.
31 new government colleges and 14 new private colleges are in the process of being set up. It should be noted that in the last 67 years, only 38 government colleges have been established.
The government has provided financial assistance to 46,672 students who are meritorious yet economically challenged.
The government has introduced the system of online admission and counselling to JEE students and online admissions for colleges are also being introduced.
A total of 1881 schools have been established and 1626 schools have been upgraded. A total of 40,113 additional classrooms have been constructed.
Under the Mid-day meal scheme, afternoon meals have been made available to 99% primary school and 98% higher primary schools.
Almost 50,000 people have been appointed in primary and secondary sections.
Toilets have been constructed in 98% of the schools across the state and separate toilets for girls constructed in 82% of the schools.
Computer and allied devices have been supplied to 2600 Madhyamik and Higher Secondary schools.

Skill Development

The state obtained first place for the first time in All India Skill Contest 2013.
Under the leadership of the Hon’ble Chief Minister, West Bengal Skill Development Mission has been formed to develop technical and job-oriented skills.
To ensure development of technical skills, the West Bengal State Council of Technical and Vocational Education and Skill Development Act, 2013 has been passed.
One new ITI will be established in each block of the state. 38 new ITIs have already been established and seats have been increased by 3700. Apart from this, 88 new government ITIs are being established.
As a result of Paschimbanga Swanirbhar Shahayak Prakalpo, nearly total 1 lakh 47 thousand nos. of groups have been benefited and subsidy of over 24 crore given in a scheme for reducing loans of the self-help groups
Number of beneficiaries under the Swami Vivekananda Swanirbhar Karmasansthan Prokalpo, over the last two and half years is almost 78 thousand. Total outlay of project Rs. 1,715 crore Govt. grant Rs. 396 crore and employment generated in this project is for 2,93,827 people.
Rs 8.12 crore has been spent to train producers of self-employment projects with the objective to develop the standard of their items. Through 91 special training camps, 2660 local unemployed youth have been given training in different fields with the objective to make the people of Jangalmahal self-sufficient through increase in their earnings.
The work for construction of Training and Marketing Centre for the development of rural infrastructure at Nilgunj, Minakhan, Dhamakhali of 24 Pgs (N), Durgapur, Khandaghosh and Madhabdihi of Burdwan has been completed. Beside, work for construction of Training and Marketing Centres at New Town, Rajarhat of Kolkata, Ruipukur of Nadia, Phuljhor of Burdwan and the office of the District Collector of Paschim Medinipur is going on.
Construction of hostels for girl students is going on in 25 polytechnic colleges. Various MOUs have been signed with Raymond, Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industries, ILFS, FUCCU, ASSOCHAM, Security Sector Skill Development Council (SSSDC) and others which will train more than 1 lakh people on various sector.
Training under Skill Development Initiative Scheme (Modular Employable Skills): An additional 1,05,000 people have been trained since 2011 under Skill Development Initiative Scheme. Training of 13,500 people has been initiated in backward areas including blocks in the border areas.

Come to Bengal… Ride the growth: bengalglobalsummit.com

Education Minister announces college poll dates

Posted on December 11, 2014 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

The state Education Minister Partha Chatterjee today announced that elections to all the 488 colleges in the state will be held in January. Immediately after this, the Calcutta University authorities issued a notification in this regard.

While the students’ union election for Calcutta University has been fixed on 17th January, the election for other Kolkata colleges under CU will be held on three phases – 17, 19 and 21 January. The CU-affiliated colleges of Hooghly, South 24-Parganas and Howrah will hold their elections on 28 January.

It was also decided that for colleges under Kolkata police area, the additional officer in charge (OC) will be the liaison officer and he will monitor the entire students’ union election process in the colleges. CU authorities have urged respective district magistrates to provide adequate security arrangements to avoid any untoward incident.