CHENNAI: Teachers from government arts and science colleges urged the higher education department to include guest lecturers while calculating the minimum staff strength (50%) required for transfer eligibility. The demand comes after the recent transfer counselling guidelines that limit transfers in departments with fewer permanent staff than half of the sanctioned posts.
Only 4,500 of the 13,000 sanctioned posts across the government colleges have permanent faculty, with the rest filled by guest lecturers, according to the Tamil Nadu Government College Teachers’ Association (TNGCTA). “If guest lecturers are not included while calculating staff strength, many teachers will be disqualified from applying for transfers,” said TNGCTA secretary S Suresh.
As many guest lecturers are posted in rural areas, not including them in the count will impact the teachers from those colleges the most, Suresh said. “In 2022, guest lecturers were excluded from the count and fewer than 200 people were transferred,” he said.
Additionally, teachers demanded the department revoke the deputation of those sent to 61 newly established colleges, where they have been working for two to six years, to allow them to participate in the transfer process. They also urged the department to fill vacant secondary grade principal positions and include those during the counselling.
Recently, the department issued guidelines for conducting general counselling — to be completed by November 24 — for teachers in government colleges under the Directorate of Collegiate Education (DCE) and Directorate of Technical Education. Subsequently, DCE asked the teachers to apply for transfers online at www.dcetransfer.in by November 18.
The guidelines specify that the list of vacancies along with subject-wise and seniority-wise lists of applicants will be published on the websites. Vacancies created during the process will be updated, and additional transfers will be granted based on seniority. Transfer orders will be issued online, it said.