COOCH BEHAR, July 26: With roll strength of 1041 Cooch Behar College is suffering from various problems. There are two posts of teachers in English and Commerce lying vacant for about six years. Two more posts in Philosophy and Commerce are also lying vacant since February of this year. There is no head clerk in the office since February. The college needs some more personnel for smooth functioning of the institution. 

Cooch Behar College is the first and the lone college in entire North Bengal that has its own website (www.coochbeharcollege.net.in) which was inaugurated on 15 May of this year. It is the lone college in Cooch Behar district that offers subjects like Geography (Honours) and Physical Education for the students. From the ongoing academic session the college started Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) course by its own management. 

Teacher-in-charge of Cooch Behar College Mr Bishnu Prasad Mukherjee said that Career Oriented Programme (COP) was introduced in the college from this year to meet the changing demands on education. There is no college in this district that offers such facility. Students from other colleges can also join here in COP courses in certificate, diploma and advance diploma courses in Communicative English, Eco-tourism Management and Women Studies. The Central government too came forward with financial assistance to make the COP courses functional. 

Mr Mukherjee said that the college is also suffering from the admission problem as other educational institutions due to lack of accommodation for students. An administrative building is also needed for the college. He said that they were trying to introduce MCom course in the college but the higher authorities are yet to give green signal for it. He claimed that the necessary infrastructure for introducing the MCom course was there in the college. It was said that the lead-college (ABN Seal College) is to get the opportunity to introduce the MCom course but that college has no commerce stream till now, Mr Mukherjee added. They are expecting that the authorities may give green signal to add Sanskrit (Pass and Honours) in under-graduate level soon, he hoped. 

The governing body of Cooch Behar College adopted a decision to add science stream with Physics, Chemistry and Computer Science. The college is also trying to convince the Central government to get financial assistance from University Grants Commission (UGC) to introduce Minority Community Remedial Coaching at undergraduate level for the students belonging to minority communities, Mr Mukherjee said. 

There are about 17,000 books in the college library. A new library building was erected with Rs 10-lakh recently. There is also a Book Bank for poor and needy students. The library will be totally computerised and the process for that work already started, Mr Mukherjee said. 

The college has a plan to introduce extension activities against social evils like dowry system and women trafficking. This programme may start very shortly, Mr Mukherjee hoped. For up-gradation of the quality of education the college will be assessed by the NAAC before or after the pujas, Mr Mukherjee added. []