Stating that the State government has failed to resolve their problems, thousands of guest lecturers and teachers working in degree colleges, high schools and Pre University colleges have decided to stage a State-wide agitation on June 25.

In a joint press release, Karnataka State Lecturers/ Teachers Agitation Committee and All India Democratic Youth Organisation (AIDYO) have said that because of the apathy of the State government, guest lecturers and teachers were facing hardships though they are engaged in the noble work of imparting education.

“According to official sources, till recently, 14,564 guest lecturers were serving in 413 government first grade colleges in the State. During July 2019, the government appointed around 22,150 guest teachers to hold classes for Class X and II PU students. And, there is no official data available on other such guest faculty in various educational institutions,” both the organisations have said in the release.

Releasing the press release on behalf of both the organisations, Dharwad District Secretary of AIDYO Hanumesh Huded has said that during January 2019 University Grants Commission had issued a circular directing State governments to fix an honorarium of ₹ 1,500 per class or a monthly honorarium of up to ₹ 50,000 to guest lecturers. “However, till date guest lecturers with NET, SLET and Ph.D are getting an honorarium of ₹ 13,000 and others were getting ₹ 11,000. The guest teachers are getting ₹ 7,500 per month. What is worse is that they have not been paid even that amount for the last four or five months,” he has said.

Mr. Huded has pointed out in the release that while the State government had been asking the private players not to stop or cut down salaries of employees during the COVID-19 lockdown period, it itself had not paid guest lecturers and teachers for the last four or five months.

The State government had only recently released ₹ 53 crore towards honorarium, which was not sufficient to clear all pending honorarium to be paid to guest lecturers and teachers. The two organisations urged the State government to immediately release all the pending dues and also to initiate the process of filling vacant posts of lecturers and teachers through permanent appointment instead of continuing the guest faculty system.