CHENNAI: Bringing some relief to faculty of private engineering colleges, the Directorate of Technical Education (DoTE) has directed Anna University, the affiliating university of engineering colleges in the state, to ensure that colleges do not harass their faculty by denying them salary or overburdening them with work.
The directions come in the wake of a complaint filed before the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) following the suicide of a teacher in a private engineering college in Erode. The complaint mentions that the teacher was not paid salary by the college, which caused him severe mental depression and eventually led to suicide. Hearing the matter, NHRC had sought a report from DoTE.
DoTE has directed Anna University to strictly ensure that teachers are not asked to find students for admissions in order to get their salary. The university has also been directed to ensure that private colleges do not confiscate original certificates while recruiting them and follow transparency in recruitment process and provide them with salary as per AICTE norms.
In a letter dated August 29, technical education commissioner G Laxmi Priya wrote to the registrar of Anna University to conduct surprise visits in private engineering colleges to check whether the directions are being followed. The university has also been asked to check whether colleges are maintaining proper teacher-student ratio so that faculties are not overburdened with work due shortage of teachers.
“Recently, we conducted an inspection and found that teacher-student ratio was not maintained in many colleges. We will conduct regular surprise checks to address the anomalies,” said a senior administrative official of Anna university.DoTE has also recommended giving help to teachers deal with routine workload apart from organizing de-stressing programmes like yoga for faculty members and students.
“At the time of giving employment, many private colleges promise some amount, but later on they pay only a part of it. To ensure that the teachers don’t leave the job, their original certificates are confiscated. Teachers were asked to forcibly admit students into the colleges. Everyone knew about the problem but nothing was done so far. I am happy now that DoTE has taken up the matter seriously,” said KM Karthik, founder of All India Private Colleges Employees Union (AIPCEU).