BANGALORE: The state government, which is struggling to implement the language policy and make Kannada the medium of instruction, does not however seem keen to teach Kannada at the higher education level. Most of universities and colleges in Karnataka are facing an acute shortage of Kannada teachers.
Since recruitment has been stopped from 1985, there is a severe shortage of staff for teaching Kannada. Though private colleges are recruiting Kannada lecturers, they have been hired for a pittance of a salary. They have been recruited for Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,000 in the beginning, while lecturers with more than 10 years experience get Rs 7,000 to Rs 10,000 per month. Compare this to the starting salaries of lecturers teaching Computer Science, Electronics and Bio-technology in the same colleges at Rs 15,000 to 17,000.
Bangalore University College Teachers Association president Professor K G Lokesh said that the least paid are those who teach Kannada in private colleges.
According to him, in Bangalore University-affiliated colleges, there are just around 700 Kannada lecturers for the more than three lakh students. “It is very difficult during evaluation, since they have to evaluate a large number of answer scripts.
The situation is not different in other varsities in Karnataka,” he said.
Lokesh urged the state government to constitute a committee to study the pathetic condition of Kannada teaching faculty members.
The situation at the University level is no different. The Centre for Kannada Studies, Bangalore University, offers an MA in Kannada literature and in Comparative Studies for 55 students. Apart from this, diploma courses in Folklore, Linguistics and Epigraphy are also offered by the University, with each course intake of 20. The Centre is managing with 10 lecturers for all the five courses. The university had called for filling up of four posts approved by UGC, at least four times in the past, but so far, the posts are vacant.
Mangalore University, which offers an MA in Kannada and many diploma courses, has only four teachers.
According to UGC norms, any full-fledged department should have one professor, two readers and four lecturers.
But the Kannada department of Mangalore University has only three professors and one reader. Though short of staff, it has been successful in tying up with many foreign universities.
m ashwini@epmltd.com