Calcutta University Students’ Protest: Teachers Under Fire

Kolkata: Post-graduate students of Calcutta University’s Bengali department gheraoed (confided) teachers on Wednesday, demanding re-evaluation of first semester answer scripts.

This is the second gherao in only a month. The students insist they deserve better marks. Students expressed dissatisfaction over the marks they were given.

Seniors too joined the protest and confined their teachers to the campus till 5PM.

Second-year PG student Gopal Mondal said: “Two hundred of the 386 students have scored over 60 percent but 20 have failed. Several have got average marks. How is it that so many got the same score?” The gherao was lifted after teachers promised to discuss their demand on Thursday.

The agitating students, who appeared for the Bengali department’s first semester exams, expressed displeasure over not being given first class and laid siege to their faculty office.

 According to students, out of 370 examinees, 201 scored first class, 298 scored above 55 percent and 11 failed.

In April, second year post-graduation students of Bengali department of Calcutta University (CU) staged a gherao of the teachers alleging that less marks were given to them in the third semester.The stir was lifted after Soma Banerjee, registrar of CU, negotiated with the agitating students.

Calcutta University, which was established in the year 1857 was the first institution in Asia to be established as a multi-disciplinary and secular Western-style university. Within India it is recognized as a “Five-Star University” and a “Centre with Potential for Excellence” by the University Grant Commission and National Assessment and Accreditation Council.