COIMBATORE: The arrest of an assistant professor of a private arts and science college in Aruppukottai, Nirmala Devi, for luring students to do ‘certain things’ for officials has exposed the lack of ethical and moral commitment among teaching fraternity. Academicians feel that the root cause for this is the back door entry into teaching profession.“Of late, entry age into any profession is very late. In teaching also, after working many years in self-financing colleges for a lesser salary, they enter into government and aided colleges. Since they get into the job in their mid 30’s, they only have 15-20 years of service left. Even to get those jobs, they have to pay around `35-40 lakh,” said C Pichandy, former general secretary of the Association of University Teachers. “By way of salary, they cannot recover the amount from missing years. In order to earn extra income, they get into corrupt and unethical practices. For a single post, there are more than 100 qualified aspirants. So, to get jobs, they indulge in backdoor methods even if they have the qualification,” he added.
He further said, “During our time, we aspired to become teachers. There was an emotional bonding with students and throughout our life, we remained teachers. Now, people who become teachers take it as a contract up to the age of 58 years. The ethical or moral fibre is lost and there is no commitment. To overcome this crisis, we have to reestablish that fibre.”In the last 15 years, there is corruption and political interference in faculty appointment in both universities and colleges. Majority of the faculty members, who have been recruited recently, are only interested in earning more money. Teachers with good principles are less in number, said P Uchimakali, national vice president of SFI.
“Earlier, there were complaints of sexual harassment among PhD and MPhil students. Now, it has come down to the undergraduate college student level. There were sexual harassment complaints against faculty members of Bharathiar University, Madurai Kamaraj University and Manonmaniam Sundaranar University. But, not even a single teacher, against whom sexual harassment complaints were levelled at, was punished. They were only suspended for a few days -- till the issue subsides,” he lamented.