The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Fine Arts students denied jobs

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Sunday, Aug 24, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Fine Arts students denied jobs

B.B. Ravinandan

They are caught in the crossfire of a dispute between Hampi varsity, DPI

Officials say Hampi University has no right to conduct the course
The university says the Chancellor has cleared it

Bangalore: Studying a course approved by the Government does not always assure a job. But this is a bizarre case where holding a government-approved course is cited as the precise reason for which hundreds have been deemed ineligible for jobs as teachers in primary and high schools.

Hundreds of students across the State who completed at least two years of education in Fine Arts after SSLC now find they are not eligible for the Government’s teaching jobs.

The reason: they are caught in the crossfire of a dispute between the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) and Hampi University over the validity of its Art Teachers Course and affiliation of all the Fine Arts colleges to the University.

Problems started after the commencement of the new syllabus from 2001-02. According to the norms of the new syllabus for Fine Arts course, students are eligible to be primary school teachers after they complete two years of foundation course and one year of Art Teacher Course (ATC). To be eligible for a high school teaching post, a student has to complete a two-year foundation course, a three-year diploma and an AED (Art Education diploma) course.

As misfortune would have it, the students who completed the two-year foundation course and the ATC course, now find that the course has not been made part of the recruitment rules. This means that the ATC course is useless.

The DPI officials said that the Hampi University did not have the right to conduct the course. Countering this, the University authorities said that they are well within their rights to conduct the ATC course as the Karnataka Governor has cleared it.

Moreover, University officials contend that as an autonomous university, they are not obliged to take permission from any other authority to give affiliation to a course.

The DPI argues that the clearance from the Governor is invalid and that it is the DPI that has to authorise the ATC course.

Not selected

As a result, during the recent recruitment of special teachers for high schools, many students who completed the five-years post-school education found they were not selected.

Lokesh, one of the students, said: “My name figured in the provisional list, but not in the final list. We can never hope to get a Government job for no fault of ours.”

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