MADURAI: In a huge dent to the quality of education offered in the State, over 7,000 teaching vacancies have been lying vacant in government and government-aided colleges for the past 10 years. The situation has also deterred numerous deserving young teachers from drawing UGC-scale salaries.
“Between 2006 and 2011, the government had appointed 3,500 teachers, while after that only 1000 appointments have been made so far,” Government College Teachers Association President T Veeramani told TNIE. “On October 4, 2019, the Tamil Nadu Teachers Recruitment Board (TNTRB) issued notification to recruit 2,331 assistant professors for 73 subjects. The certificate verification was also completed. But, soon the government changed, and no further step was taken on the notification,” he said.
“In the past, nearly 100 university constituent colleges had been converted as government colleges. However, the authorities now care neither for the government colleges nor for the university constituent colleges. The government should immediately take steps to fill up all the teaching vacancies,” Veeramani urged.
The situation of guest lecturers working in self finance colleges and government-aided colleges is pathetic, noted Tamil Nadu Save Higher Education Forum State Secretary R Murali. Madurai Kamaraj, Manonmaniam Sundaranar, Mother Teresa and Alagappa University Teachers’ Association (MUTA) General Secretary M Nagarajan alleged that officials are taking bribes to sanction vacancies in government-aided colleges, and demanded transparency in appointments.
Speaking to TNIE, Tamil Nadu All Government UGC Qualified Guest Lecturer Association President V Thangaraj said as many as 3,500 UGC-qualified teaching staff are working as guest lecturers in government arts and science colleges and drawing a consolidated salary of just Rs 20,000 for over 15 years now. They are also denied other benefits, including maternity leave, he claimed.
Thangaraj urged the State government to provide an internal reservation of 50 per cent to guest lectures while appointing assistant professors. “Further, the guest lecturers should be paid Rs 50,000 per month as per UGC norms. Guest lecturers in Haryana and Punjab are already drawing salaries on this scale,” he added. Principal Secretary to Higher Education D Karthikeyan and Director of Collegiate Education Poorna Chandran were unavailable for comments when contacted. Responding to the issue, an official from the Higher Education Department said the government had to make an announcement in this regard as it is a policy decision. The government will issue a fresh notification for filling up these vacancies, he added.