Student complains against St Xavier College, Borivali (W), for inadequate lectures

Mumbai: A student from St Xavier College, Borivali (West), filed a complaint at the deputy director’s office (DYD) owing to inadequate lectures conducted by the sole faculty member and the college refusing to issue a leaving certificate to secure admission for class 12 in another college. The college is not under the chain of educational institutes under the Society of Jesus.

In her complaint letter, Sonam Krishna Main, the only art faculty student, said the college is housed in a building on the fourth floor and has eight to 10 classrooms that are locked and never used for students. “There was only one professor left who used to teach commerce and I am an arts student. There was no attendance sheet, no timetable for lectures and no breaks were allotted. The timetable or the lecture timings were never fixed and they were communicated with other students and those students used to pass the message to me, after which I used to go to the college depending on the messages I would receive,” states the letter.

On the admission process, Main wrote that admissions were done online and as soon as she was allotted this college, she visited and inquired about it. “I was unsure whether I should take the admission, but due to the online restrictions, I got admitted here. When my college started, there were 4 students with me in arts, but as we came to know that there were very few students in the college, the principal gave everyone the choice of moving to commerce, but I did not want to change my subject, hence I was left alone in the stream.”

Main also wrote a letter to Yuva Sena (UBT) chief Aaditya Thackeray, asking him to act on it. Yuva Sena members Pradeep Sawant and Rajan Kolambekar wrote a letter to DYD to take action against the college. “How does DYD allow such a college to run without faculty members and an insufficient number of students,” questioned Sawant in his letter.

Prashant Gaikwad, college principal, said, “This is a fraudulent complaint filed by Yuva Sena members. We rusticated her due to a lack of attendance. Apart from this student, no other student has complained and we have an affidavit of other students who are saying this complaint is wrong.”

Meanwhile, Sandeep Sangve, DYD Mumbai, said, “I told Navnath Wanve, education inspector for the western region, to visit this college, enquire about this matter and submit a report. After receiving his report, we will decide on the future action.”