Wednesday, September 4, 2019

Guest lecturers in govt. colleges demand reservation in recruitment 

They have highlighted the assurances made by former CM Jayalalithaa and the Higher Education Department

04/09/2019 , Pon Vasanth B.A, CHENNAI

With the Teachers’ Recruitment Board issuing a notification for filling 2,340 vacancies for the Assistant Professor post in government arts and science colleges in Tamil Nadu, the guest lecturers who have been working on a temporary basis in these colleges for the past many years have appealed for special reservation for them in the recruitment process.

They have highlighted the assurances made by former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and the Higher Education Department in the past on giving priority to guest lecturers during recruitment.

Between 3,500 and 4,000 guest lecturers are engaged by the Higher Education Department on a consolidated pay of ₹15,000. Their contracts are renewed every year to technically mean they are recruited only for one academic year. Different associations representing guest lecturers said there were people working on a temporary basis in government colleges for the past 15 years.

“Provided they possess necessary qualifications, it is only fair that they are given preference during the recruitment,” said V. Thangaraj of the Tamil Nadu All Government College UGC Qualified Guest Lecturers’ Association. “Let the government reserve a percentage of seats for the guest lecturers,” he added.

Echoing his view, A. Kathali Narasinga Perumal, State president, Tamil Nadu Constituent Colleges Guest Lecturers' Association, said injustice was meted out to guest lecturers for the past several years.

“In recent times, there has been an emphasis on qualifications prescribed by the University Grants Commission (UGC). However, UGC regulations are never followed in our salary,” he said.

Another guest lecturer from a Chennai-based college, speaking on condition of anonymity, pointed out that while UGC prescribed ₹50,000 as salary per month, the guest lecturers received only ₹15,000. “This is after the revision in 2016. Until then, we were getting only ₹10,000.” he added.

Process postponed

Mr. Thangaraj said the government must either implement reservation for guest lecturers in the recruitment or compensate them for not paying UGC-prescribed salary for the past many years.

The Teachers’ Recruitment Board has postponed the commencement of the process of receiving applications for recruitment to fill 2,340 vacancies in Assistant Professor posts in government arts and science colleges. The receiving of applications, to be submitted online, was scheduled to commence on Wednesday (September 4).

An announcement by the TRB on its website said the online registration had been postponed due to “technical reasons”. The new date will be announced later, it said.

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