West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee Thursday justified her government's move to introduce the four-year honours course at the undergraduate (UG) level from this academic session, saying it would help Bengal students get a level-playing field in higher education at the national level. Mamata said the new system to be implemented is in accordance with the University Grants Commission (UGC)'s guidelines. Although the four-year UG honours course is one of the features of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, the TMC government had first opposed the NEP's implementation and criticised the BJP-led Centre for bringing it. "Earlier it used to take three years to complete graduation. Now this has been changed. Those, who are pursuing pass course (not honours), will complete their degree in three years. But those, who will pursue honours course, will complete the same in four years. This is a new rule (guideline) of the UGC," said Mamata while speaking at a felicitation event for the toppers of the Bengal board, CBSE, ICSE and ISC at Biswa Bangla Mela Prangan in Kolkata. "This (new rule) has one advantage. Once you pursue Master's degree, then you will complete it in one year instead of two years which was the previous norm. If other states follow this rule and we don't, then students from our state will lag behind the competition with rest of the country. That's why we had to do this," the CM said. The TMC government on Wednesday announced the introduction of four-year honours course at the UG level, instead of the existing three-year course, in all government and state-aided higher educational institutions from the 2023-24 academic year in accordance with the UGC's national curriculum. Officials said the move will not impact students who had enrolled in an honours course before 2023 at a government or state-aided university. In a statement, the state higher education department said the decision has been taken after holding talks with all stakeholders and based on the recommendation of a state-appointed expert panel, which recommended rolling out a four-year UG course from this academic year. "The matter of introducing 4 years UG level programme in different state government/ state aided/sponsored Higher Education Institutions has been under consideration of the State Government for some time. The State Government constituted an Expert Committee to examine the matter and submit the recommendation regarding implementation of the National Curriculum and Credit Framework (NCCF).. The Expert Committee has recommended the implementation of NCCF for 4 years UG courses from the academic year 2023-2024 in all government/aided/sponsored Higher Educational Institutions in the State through optimum utilisation of existing resource or self-mobilization of additional resources, pending receipt of additional financial assistances," the higher education department stated. "After consulting various stakeholders and keeping the future of students in mind, it has been decided by the competent authority in the State Government that the 4 years UG level programme will be introduced in all Government/ Government aided/ Government sponsored Higher Education Institutions from the academic session 2023-2024. They shall be awarded degrees in accordance with the UGC national curriculum and credit framework for UG level programmes," it added. The NEP 2020 has recommended the inclusion of a four-year honours course at the UG level in place of the existing three-year one and a one-year postgraduate (PG) course instead of two years, or “4+1” format in place of the current “3+2” system. The Mamata government had earlier opposed the NEP 2020, saying it will not be implemented in Bengal. State education minister Bratya Basu claimed Wednesday that this was not done in accordance with NEP 2020. Instead, the move was part of the State Education Policy, where only “best practices” have been included, he said. “A misleading news is being circulated that the state government has adopted the National Education Policy. To call it a mockery of the truth would be an understatement. The state government has formulated a completely separate State Education Policy by incorporating all the 'best practices'. This State Education Policy will be uploaded soon,” he tweeted in Bengali. The education minister stated: “Our seven lakh students would not have been able to compete in the all-India field if the four-year degree course had not been introduced. In this case, their tendency to study abroad or in another state would have increased. Those who are financially weak, they would be in danger. This decision has been taken keeping all these things in mind. Moreover, keeping the three-year degree course would have been as anti-student as the previous Left government's decision to drop English from class one or to introduce bridge courses or maybe even more.”
