Private unaided colleges laying off senior faculty

ADMISSION CRISIS

Private unaided colleges laying off senior faculty

Shrinivasa.M@timesgroup.com

Mysuru:  23.07.2020

Citing uncertainty over admissions, private unaided colleges across the state are laying off thousands of faculty members, many of whom have been teaching for decades. The preference appears to be for younger, tech-savvy teachers who can handle the transition to online classes — a trend which academics fear could impact the quality of education.

Sources in the Directorate of Collegiate Education (DCE) said the pandemic has affected 315 private aided colleges and an equal number of private unaided colleges across the state. “Even in aided colleges, the services of temporary faculty members are being terminated,” said a lecturer who has been asked to resign.

Faculty members in various colleges said the managements are seeking resignations of both teaching and non-teaching staff, citing lack of revenue due to which it has become difficult to run the institutions.

Around 60% of teachers in degree colleges have been sacked. The need of the hour is strict action against these private institutions which deny salaries and dismiss faculty members,” said YA Narayana Swamy, MLC from teachers’ constituency. “The government must insist at least 10 years’ audit of the institutions to find out the truth. It is not fair to sack teachers on the ground that no fees is being collected.”

“One or two junior faculty members who are conversant with technology have been retained after a 50% salary cut to conduct online classes. The remaining teachers have been sacked unceremoniously without taking into consideration their academic track record. This is the trend in all unaided colleges,” said a lecturer who declined to be named. “There is no government agency to look after our grievances.”

R Mugeshappa, joint director in the Department of Collegiate Education, said, “The colleges get affiliation from universities and their decision doesn’t come under our jurisdiction.”

Raju CR, president of University of Mysore (UoM) Teachers Association said depleting resources of college managements has resulted in this unprecedented crisis. “The higher education sector is among those badly hit by the Covid crisis,” he said.

KR Venugopal, VC of Bangalore University, said colleges are presented with a dilemma now. “It is true that colleges are sacking lecturers but we don’t have any jurisdiction on these colleges. If we question them, they cite no fee payment by students. We don’t have an answer for this. Since the government itself has asked them not to collect fees, colleges are in a financial crisis,” he said.

We will look into this issue though we don’t have any jurisdiction over private colleges. I am aware of salary cuts. When engineering colleges have opted for salary cuts, first-grade colleges naturally will be in a weaker position

G Hemantha Kumar |

VC, UNIVERSITY OF MYSORE