The Hindu : Front Page : Guest lecturers insecure even after reinstatement

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Aug 01, 2006

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Guest lecturers insecure even after reinstatement

R. Krishnamoorthy

They want a categorical assurance on new recruitment from the Government

TIRUCHI: About a week after their reinstatement, guest lecturers, who were pushed into a situation of uncertainty after the State Government announced its move to convert self-financing courses in Government colleges into regular ones, confusion still prevails.

Though the announcement is welcomed widely, the guest lecturers are apprehensive, since there is no word yet on the procedure of appointing a regular faculty members.

The earlier directive to Government colleges — to collect only the fees specified for regular programmes from students in the self-financing stream — has caused jitters among these teachers since the colleges paid their salaries out of the high fees levied for self-financing programmes.

Consequently, the Periyar E.V.R. Government College, Arignar Anna Government College, Musiri, and Tiruverumbur Government College could not utilise the services of guest lecturers for a week.

The subsequent communication to colleges to continue to utilise the services of the guest faculty until further notice, however, has only provided them a temporary reprieve.

At present, the maximum monthly salary that a guest lecturer is entitled to is a measly Rs. 4,000. What these teachers look for is a categorical assurance from the Government that their interests would be safeguarded.

Now that the University Grants Commission (UGC) has lifted the requirement of a pass in National Eligibility Test / State-Level Eligibility Test for lectureship aspirants, they feel that there should be no difficulty in regularising their services.

The vice-president of Government College Teachers' Manram, R. Shantharam, who was a member of a delegation that met Higher Education Minister K. Ponmudi recently, expressed confidence that an announcement on new recruitments would be made during the ongoing session of the Assembly.

The Minister had reportedly given an assurance to the delegation that serving guest lecturers would be given due weightage in the recruitment to be carried out by the Teachers' Recruitment Board.

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