KOCHI:The protest against conferring autonomy for Maharaja’s College is gaining momentum with teachers’ organisation raising strong protest against an order by the Department of Higher Education asking teaching staff and those who wish to get transferred to Maharaja’s College to submit an affidavit that they would cooperate with the procedure for autonomy.
According to the new order, all teachers in an autonomous college should be protected from transfer for a minimum of three years from the date of appointment in the autonomous college, if they submit a written affidavit expressing willingness to perform duties and responsibilities relating to autonomy assigned to them.
Teachers who are associated with the agitation said the condition is, as of now, applicable only to the teaching staff in Maharaja’s College as it is the only government college conferred with the autonomous status.
“When application was invited for transfer, there was no such condition. By introducing a fresh condition, the government is aiming at sabotaging the agitation brewing up on Maharaja’s campus against autonomy,” said Santhosh T Varghese, a teacher of Maharaja’s College.
The Association of Kerala Government Government College Teachers has already come out in protest against the order. AKGCT state president K Ramakrishnan and secretary K Damodaran have urged the government to withdraw the order.
“Issuing a fresh order with a new condition, that too at a time when final list is being prepared, is violation of norms,” AKGCT president and secretary alleged in a statement. This is an effort on the part of the government to ensure that teachers are functioning according to the nature of an autonomous institution, which is slightly different from functioning of a teacher in an ordinary college. It is a fact that certain teachers who were transferred to Maharaja’s, are cooperating with autonomy. They were aware that they were being transferred to an autonomous college and will have to follow the norms here.
This would have prompted the government to introduce the new condition, the Principal said.