The Hindu : Teachers may not present views before panel

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Sep 26, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu-Chennai

Teachers may not present views before panel

By K.Ramachandran

CHENNAI Sept. 25. A crucial meeting of a high-level committee headed by the Chief Secretary, Sukavaneshwar, will be held here tomorrow to seek a solution for the impasse created over the move to convert government colleges into constituent units of the respective universities.

The committee's aim is to thrash out some of the concerns raised by government college teachers over some of their service conditions in the post-conversion scenario, it remains to be seen whether the teachers will present their case before the panel.

The Tamil Nadu Univerisities (Amendment) Bill, 2002, for merging the 67 government arts and science colleges with the respective universities has got Presidential assent. But the Tamil Nadu Government Collegiate Teachers Association, (which withdrew its strike last month following assurances from the Chief Minister Jayalalithaa that their interests would be protected), has now decided to resume the strike from October 8.

"We decided to resume the agitation because we felt that the Government was hurrying to notify the Act, without considering the social issues that we, as well as the students, have been raising. There seems to be no guarantee to our real concerns being addressed in full," argues the TNGCTA joint secretary, Safra Begum.

The TNGCTA wants the Government to keep the implementation of the Act in abeyance until all the questions raised by the teachers were answered. "The Government should call for an open and frank discussion with teachers, educationists, students and public leaders on the effect of the move," says Dr. Begum.

The police action against student demonstrators and instances of ruling partymen threatening teachers and principals had only added to their resentment.

A report from Salem quoting the Government College Teachers Manram's secretary, A.Sankarasubramanian, said, the Manram would boycott Thursday's meeting and would seek an end to students' agitation.

The All-India Students Federation State secretary, D.Lenin, disagrees with the Government's contention that the move would help the colleges in getting more funds and research projects or improve the educational quality. The UGC wanted to stop funding activity and become a monitoring body. The government colleges were performing a social function of "democratising education".

Students organisations were against the present system of higher education, but merging government colleges that catered for the social and economically weaker sections, including rural women, with universities, was not their idea of reform. "We feel the malady is systemic and there is a need for a healthy debate on how to link education with life skills, not a withdrawal of government from collegiate education system," he adds.

Academic administrators, however, feel that these issues too could be thrashed out through talks. A cash-strapped Government has to look for alternatives to improve standards and infrastructure. Pointing out to the college teachers' viewpoint that courses such as history, sociology or literature would be scrapped, if universities took over the colleges, the administrators claimed that it was an indication of the standards prevailing.

Two years from now, the WTO agreements would come into force, throwing the door open for foreign universities. Only universities, which perform well would survive. If the government colleges continue to function the way they do now, they would close down. Even the existing benefits would be taken away, they add.

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