Even as the Andhra University is on the verge of recruiting around 350 assistant professors after almost three decades, its contract teachers who have been fighting for their regularisation since the last 20 years have faulted the timing of notification of the interview schedule on various counts.
Having cleared the written examination that was held in April last year, around 3,000 aspirants have been waiting for the interview session, scheduled to begin from March 28. The State government has issued the notification recently.
Awaiting EC view: V-C
However, the contract teachers feel that the issuing of the interview schedule is illegal, given the fact that the Model Code of Conduct for the polls to MLC teachers’ constituency and the Assembly and Lok Sabha seats is in force.
Clarifying this issue, AU Vice-Chancellor G. Nageswara Rao said, “We have written about this issue to the Election Commissioner and the reply is awaited.”
The university administration has also written to the authorities concerned to increase the number of days scheduled for the interview from three to at least six, citing that more than 3,000 candidates are to be interviewed.
‘Aspirants stand to lose’
Meanwhile, the contract teachers are also not happy with the roster system for the recruitment. “The recruitment is being done in two phases and the authorities are going to follow two roster systems for each phase, instead of one. This will affect the chances of candidates belonging to SC/ST, BC and minority categories,” AP Assistant Professors JAC president Arjunudu claimed.
In response, the AU Vice-Chancellor tried to clear the air. “This is a misconception. There are two rosters. One roster is being followed since last 50 years. Whenever recruitment is done, the roster call begins from the last number of the previous recruitment process,” Mr. Nageswara Rao explained.
The teaching strength of Andhra University has dropped from the sanctioned 1,200 to less than 300 in the last three decades.
In several departments such as History, the strength is just one and it will become zero after April, when the current faculty attain superannuation.
Legal tangle
Further, AP Assistant Professors JAC has brought up the legal tangle pertaining to the recruitment.
“The interview schedule should have been declared after the pending court cases were resolved. Now, the AU authorities will keep the results in sealed covers and declare it only after the cases are settled. So, what is the rationale behind conducting the interviews now? It is a wasteful exercise which will have financial implications,” Mr. Arjunudu argued.
Clarifying the issue, Vice-Chancellor Mr. Nageswara Rao said that the interviews were being done on the instructions given by the higher education authorities, and everything would be decided based on the outcome of the court case.
