Commissions could be set up to monitor and improve working conditions and pay scale for teachers who work in constituent colleges and self-financing colleges where there was an unfavourable work environment , R. Srinivasan from SASTRA School of Management said here on Friday.
He was addressing a meeting of Tamil Nadu University Constituent Colleges and Self-Financing College Teachers’ Association where representatives from colleges across the State had convened to discuss measures to be adopted so that they were paid and recognised on a par with their counterparts in aided institutions.
Stating that while bigger and recognised self-financing institutions were able to give good emoluments for the professors, many smaller self-financing arts and science and engineering colleges not only paid their teachers poorly but also had inadequate infrastructure. “Many constituent colleges are in dire need of good infrastructure and better pay for the teachers. Public commissions, if set up, can record and look into the grievances of the teachers of colleges across the State and the government can then intervene to take steps accordingly to arrive a better pay structure,” he said.
While teachers from smaller self-finance colleges in the southern districts voiced their concern about the poor salaries, G.R. Swaminathan, Assistant Solicitor General of India, Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court, said that they could seek legal redressal if the colleges had not implemented pay scales as fixed by the University Grants Commission.
“If the colleges do not pay the professors on a par with the guidelines fixed by the UGC and Ministry for Human Resources, it is unconstitutional and illegal. The teachers should be aware to take the necessary legal steps if they have such grievances,” he stated.
At the meeting, it was decided that a charter of demands would be presented to the UGC, Ministry of Human Resources and the Tamil Nadu Education Department, voicing the need to regulate and ensure that faculty in constituent and self-financing colleges were compensated well.
“A majority of the private colleges in the State seldom follow any guidelines and there are colleges where the staff are paid less than Rs. 4,000 a month. There needs to be some regulatory body or action from the government to take up this issue,” said A. Kathali Narasinga Perumal, convenor of the association.
