Government and government-aided colleges that are conducting their own admission counselling to fill vacant seats—left unoccupied after the centralized admission process-plan to arrange special tutorials or extra classes to help newly admitted students catch up with the rest of their peers.
The independent counselling sessions began on October 10 and will continue until November 7, as many colleges still have nearly half of their seats vacant.
For instance, at Lady Brabourne College, 15 of the 35 seats in the English department had remained vacant after centralized counselling through the state portal. By Monday, however, all of those seats were filled through the institution’s online counselling process. The microbiology department also completed its admissions through this system.
The principal of Lady Brabourne College explained that tutorial sessions would be introduced specifically for students who joined later in the admission cycle so that they can cope with the coursework that began earlier in the semester. Classes had started in late August, following the Supreme Court’s decision to lift a Calcutta High Court stay order related to new OBC reservation policies announced by the state government on June 8. Because of the legal proceedings, regular classes were delayed and could only start on August 29, just before the Puja vacation, which commenced on September 24.
To ensure that all students are equally prepared for the January semester examinations, teachers have been asked to arrange flexible schedules for these extra tutorial sessions. The college administration aims to minimize the academic disadvantage faced by students who were admitted after the main counselling round.
Similarly, the principal of New Alipore College stated that faculty members have been instructed to conduct additional sessions for students admitted up to November 7 under the decentralized counselling process.
In a previous instance, Asutosh College had requested Calcutta University to postpone the internal examinations scheduled for January, arguing that late entrants from the previous year’s admission cycle did not have adequate time for preparation. However, the university declined the request, stating that rescheduling exams would disrupt the academic calendar.
University officials emphasized that colleges should take the initiative to support late-admitted students by arranging supplementary classes so they can perform well in examinations.
A principal from another South Kolkata government-aided college noted that the new four-year undergraduate curriculum, introduced in 2023, is significantly more comprehensive. As a result, colleges are prioritizing extended or additional teaching sessions to ensure students admitted later are academically ready for upcoming assessments.