Coimbatore: Transfer counselling for government arts and science college teachers should have been held in the first week this month. But, there isn’t any sign of holding the counselling anytime soon. “Usually, the counselling happens before colleges reopen. Last year, it was scheduled like that. This year, we had asked concerned officials to hold the counselling in August first week. But it has not been held so far,” said T Veeramani, head of psychology department at the Government Arts and Science College, Coimbatore, and the president of Tamil Nadu Government Collegiate Teachers’ Association.
The transfer of college teachers would be done in the order of preference which includes categories such as medical issues, women, teachers whose spouses work at a particular location and seniority. In addition to counselling, teachers said their long-standing demand of recruiting teachers to fill vacancies in government colleges has not been done yet. There were around 3,000 vacant teaching posts in government arts colleges across the state. “Of this, around 2,000 have been filled with guest lecturers. There is also a dearth of guest lecturers now and this has been affecting academic affairs of several colleges,” Veeramani said and added that recruitment has not been conducted since 2015.
When contacted, an official with the directorate of collegiate education said the department has been trying to sort out the teacher posting for the new courses introduced in colleges this year. “We have to ensure that there is at least one teacher per course. Only after that we could work on the counselling procedures.” tnn
