GUWAHATI, May 14 - The Cotton University Students� Union (CUSU) on Thursday sent a memorandum to the Chief Minister over the reduction in the number of seats in higher secondary classes of the university. A copy of the memorandum was also sent to the State Education Minister.
CUSU vice president Manisha Deka said that the seat reduction process in HS Arts and Science streams in Cotton University has pushed the whole education system to a great uncertainty. The total intake for Science stream was 500 seats and the same for Arts stream was 160, but as per new rules the numbers were reduced to 320 and 120 seats respectively, she rued.
�We raised several questions in the memorandum and urged the government to resolve them soon. The decision (seat reduction) will harm the students, especially those from poor economic backgrounds as they cannot pay high fees in private institutions. The university can easily increase the seat capacity, but sadly, it is doing just the opposite,� Manisha alleged.
The university vide a notification on Monday, had stated that admissions into the university�s HS first year classes would be in the order of 320 students in the Science stream and 120 seats in the Arts stream. After the announcement, the students of the university vehemently opposed the decision of the university authority.
Meanwhile, Academic Registrar of the university Sanjay Kumar Dutta said, �The decision was taken at the tenth meeting of the Cotton University Executive Council held on January 24 this year. The intake capacity was reduced in both the streams only to provide quality teaching to the students. Earlier, there used to be more than 100 students in one section of each stream, which is a huge number. Now, there shall be 80 students in each of the four sections in the Science stream and 120 students in the Arts stream. There is only one section in the Arts stream.�
The CUSU also demanded availability of modules of the previous year�s question papers for all HS students and specific classrooms or halls for each stream as the students have to rush from one department to another to attend their classes. Meanwhile, the Students� Federation of India, Assam State Committee has also opposed the decision of the university to reduce the number of seats.
