National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE, a statutory body of the Union government), Southern Regional Committee, has issued an order declaring that two teachers, Poornima Pattanshetty and Yerriswamy M.C., of the Rani Channamma University are “ineligible” and that their appointments be nullified at the earliest.
NCTE’s decision follows a specific complaint by Basavaraj Goadachi, a Dharwad-based High Court advocate who, on August 13, 2013, alleged irregularities in the appointment of Dr. Pattanshetty and Dr. Yerriswamy, who are now serving as Associate Professor and Chairperson, and Associate Professor in the Department of Education of the university, respectively.
On verification of documents and the claims made by the two teachers, NCTE observed that Dr. Pattanshetty had never taught in any college, even for B.Ed Course. However, she had managed to collect experience certificates from a private B.Ed College for women for service from 1989 to 1994, whereas she completed her B.Ed in 1989 and M.Ed in 1992. She was not eligible to teach B.Ed course between 1989 and 1992.
Further, she enclosed a forged experience certificate issued on June 29, 1996 by the president of the Jain Mahila Mandal to secure a job in the university to make herself eligible for the post of Associate Professor. The university vice-chancellor appointed her as she was a Syndicate member of the university till the date of her interview. She also produced other testimonials in support of her teaching experience as visiting teacher in physiotherapy of a nursing college and residential schools which were not enough to qualify her for the post of Associate Professor.
Also, NCTE observed as “wrong” the claims of 450 and 350 API (Academic Performance Indicators) points by Dr. Pattanshetty to her credit and assessed by the university. She hyped her API points with the support of face consultancy projects of starting schools as research consultancies and without making any academic contributions.
NCTE has said that Dr. Yerriswamy is not eligible for the post of Associate Professor as he had only 51.7 per cent in MA degree, whereas norms stipulated a minimum of 55 per cent marks for eligibility. He did not have any academic contribution which could fetch him 300 API points but the university hyped the API points and recruited him as Associate Professor.
Asked if the university administration had acted as per NCTE order and how the two teachers were still continuing in service in the university, Registrar S.L. Belagagli expressed difficulty in answering the question without consulting Vice-Chancellor Shivanand B. Hosamani, who, however, was away from the city.
Mr. Godachi said that the university was illegally continuing the services of Dr. Pattanshetty and Dr. Yerriswamy instead of taking action as per NCTE advice.
