CHENNAI: After much delay, the Teachers Recruitment Board (TRB) has issued a notification for direct recruitment to fill 4,000 assistant professor positions in government arts and science colleges and government colleges of education. The portal to apply online will be open from March 29 to April 29. The tentative date for the examination is set for August 4. The candidates can visit www.trb.tn.gov.in for further information and syllabus.
Recruitment for the post of assistant professors was last done in 2015. According to the government, there are 7,198 vacancies in government arts and science colleges. TRB had called for applications to fill up 2,331 posts in 2019, but the exams were not conducted due to reasons including Covid-19. In 2022, the government announced that 4,000 assistant professors will be recruited and it also featured in TRB’s 2023 annual planner. In the planner released for 2024, the notification was supposed to be released in February and the examinations were planned in June.
In November 2022, the higher education department released a government order that dispensed with the system to appoint assistant professors based on marks provided for teaching experience, higher education qualification and interview. The GO stated that more than 55,000 doctorates have been awarded since 2015 and the government has given approval for opening of 182 self-financing arts and science colleges enabling job aspirants to easily get experience even for meagre salaries.
Since many aspirants easily secure 24 marks (15 for teaching experience and 9 for educational qualification), the method is not effective leaving interview performance as the major determining factor. Hence, the exam pattern was revised to 200 marks for written competitive examinations and 30 marks for the interview.
The department, through another GO, stated that guest lecturers working in government colleges who clear the open written competitive examinations shall be awarded a weightage of two marks for each academic year subject to maximum of 15 marks in the interview component. However, guest lecturers in government colleges are dissatisfied that their extensive experience is not being valued adequately and are demanding reservation in recognition of their work for so many years.