KOLKATA: College and university teachers may have to forgo their three day offs a week and conform to the state’s push for a six-day scheme, as applicable to remaining state employees.
Higher education minister
Partha Chatterjee has, however, left it to the state universities to enforce the six-day week regimen for teachers.
Vice-chancellors present at the West
Bengal Higher Education Council meeting on Tuesday pointed to the huge leave provisions that have come in the way of introducing choice based-credit-system (CBCS) in state institutions. As of now, teachers in most colleges and departments at state universities stick to a five-day week routine, with no classes on Saturdays and Sundays. They also enjoy another unofficial day off as preparatory leave that adds up to three offs a week.
While discussing ways to cut down on leaves, VCs proposed to enforce the common statute for all state universities that will specify that teachers have to report for duty six days a week. But universities may offer leaves for teachers to attend seminars, read papers at conferences, or go in for further studies. The government is also considering the introduction of biometric attendance for teachers .
The six-day week proposal has apparently not gone down well among teachers, who take it as an infringement on their flexibility to handle the workload. Many even refused to be treated on a par with other government employees. “Teachers, particularly those at universities, should have some independence to manage teaching and preparing for that. Enforcing attendance won’t help in delivering quality teaching because there are some, who attend institutes even on holidays. The UGC provides a preparation time for teachers. A teacher has to compromise on quality if he/she is denied the preparation time,” a JU professor said.
But those in the administration are not willing to agree. “College and university teaching weekly load is less than that at schools. They can manage teaching and updating themselves without an extra off,” said a
Bikash Bhavan source.
Besides its effort to enforce accountability of teachers, the state plans to rank its universities and colleges, similar to the human resources and development ministry’s exercise under National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF). The ranks may come as a yardstick for disbursement of funds. “A provision in the West Bengal Higher Education Council law says a grading system for state institutes can be started. The government wants to explore the ranking system that will ease fund allocation, based on performance,” a source said.
The government has urged VCs to adopt 80-20 policy for new
UG syllabuses. “The varsities are recommended to adopt 80% of the UGC syllabus, and draft the rest on their own,” said a VC.
Chatterjee pulled up universities for keeping teaching posts vacant. “I have asked Rabindra Bharati University,
Netaji Subhas Open University, Kalyani University and
Burdwan University to discuss with MHRD discontinuation of distance learning courses,” he said.
