After backlash, Kolkata college revokes 'English-only' admission policy, issues apology

Kolkata’s Loreto College on Wednesday (July 5) issued an apology after facing massive outrage for barring students from schools that teach in Bengali and other vernacular languages to seek admission in undergraduate courses. The college has also revoked the admission policy after the same was criticised and dubbed as a projection of “colonial hangover”.

In its first merit list for admission to seven BA and BSc honours programmes, the college said students whose medium of instruction in class 12 was “vernacular” have not been considered.

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It sparked outrage among the students and the people with many terming it discriminatory. Some critics called it a “colonial hangover”. Fringe outfit Bangla Pokkho held a rally outside the college, protesting against the issue.

Calcutta University registrar Debasis Das told PTI it does not allow affiliated colleges to frame such discriminatory rules, and to discriminate on the basis of a student’s medium of learning. He said the representatives of the college were summoned to the varsity over the issue.

Not our intention to discriminate: admin

Amid the outrage, the college apologised, and said the admission policy was being revoked.

“Loreto College, Kolkata unconditionally apologises to the people of Bengal and revokes the said admission policy notice with immediate effect,” it said in a statement.

“Loreto College, Kolkata, has a rich legacy of service and all-round education for over 100 years in Bengal. The recent admission policy notice does not reflect the values we cherish,” it added.

The college said the policy was implemented to ease the language-specific barriers faced by students hailing from vernacular medium backgrounds. The institution said that the intention was not to discriminate, and it apologised for hurting the sentiments of students.

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“It was observed by teachers that the students who come from schools where the medium of instruction is not English face difficulty in following the lectures. Hence, it was a practical consideration so that the students do not feel uncomfortable in the atmosphere,” the statement continued.

The college also said that it was an “unintended error”.

Loreto College principal Sister Christine Coutinho told PTI, “We have issued a fresh notice and I don’t want to say anything more on the issue.”

(With inputs from agencies)