The Association of University Teachers (AUT) has questioned the decision of the management of the D.B. Jain College, a government-aided arts and science college in Thoraipakkam, to privatise education.
The college management is keen on giving up government aid and become a self-financing institution.
Objecting to this, the association has urged the government to take action against the college.
‘Betrayal of trust’
The government should appoint a special officer to administer the college; the association has said and added that the college’s move amounted to betrayal of the public’s trust, which had invested in the development of the institution by way of donations. The D.B. Jain College, an A grade NAAC-accredited institution, has over 3,800 students.
AUT members said the college, affiliated to the University of Madras, had on its pay rolls 45 teachers and 18 non-teaching staff and “drew huge grants towards salaries of the employees and several other grants from the government and the University Grants Commission” but had not filled up State government-approved vacancies for many years.
“Even to close a course, the college must seek the government’s permission. How can the management then convert it into an entirely self-financing institution,” asked AUT general secretary N. Shettu.
Action sought
The label “aided autonomous college” had been misappropriated by the management, the association said and wanted the government to invoke Article 14(A) of Tamil Nadu Private Colleges Regulation Act, 1976. Harish L. Mehta, secretary (Administration) of the college, told The Hindu : “We are a private institution. All the teachers under the aided programmes have retired. We are running the aided programme in B. Com (Corporate Secretaryship) as the two teachers are under the aided programme. When they retire we will close the programme. We don’t want government-aided courses any more. We are paying the salaries to teachers as per UGC scale. Teachers who were appointed under aided programmes don’t take classes properly. So we took a decision 17 years ago,” he added.
