Principals of government colleges say a gesture by the State to hike the salaries of guest lecturers to a reasonable level would, for sure, reflect in academic betterment of students from rural parts.
The sagging morale of the guest lecturers, many of whom have been in service for up to 15 years, was a hindrance for deriving the expected teaching outcome. If not for the guest lecturers who account for more than 50% of the faculty strength in very many colleges, conduct of the second shift will never be a possibility, a principal said.
A good number of guest lecturers have completed their doctorate degree and even cleared the National Eligibility Test of the UGC for lectureship.
The huge disparity between guest lecturers and the regular faculty is what saps their morale.
The minimum monthly salary of a regular faculty is ₹80,000 as against the measly ₹15,000 for a guest lecturer.
Espousing the case of the guest lecturers in the government colleges and constituent units of universities, the Association of University Teachers (AUT) and the Tamil Nadu Government College Teachers' Association (TNGCTA) have been reminding the government of the latest guidelines of the University Grants Commission for hiking the honorarium of guest faculty, but to no avail.
Consequent upon implementation of the recommendations of Seventh Pay Commission, the honorarium for guest faculty should be enhanced to ₹ 1,500 per lecture subject to a maximum of ₹ 50,000 per month.
Having introduced new programmes, most of the government colleges are entirely dependent on the guest faculties for handling them.
This is the state of affairs in almost all the government colleges in rural parts, a functionary of Tamil Nadu Government College Teachers' Association said.
“In fact, the start of new programmes without determining availability of faculty is a proverbial case of putting the cart before the horse.
For a State that prides itself of having the highest gross enrolment ratio in higher education in the country, it would be prudent to infuse quality as well into higher education for which a reasonable salary for the guest lecturers is a must,” a principal said.
The UGC could, in fact, play a role to make that happen by issuing a circular that the recognition for courses will be cancelled if the specified salaries are not paid to guest lecturers, the college head said.