Guest lecturers in government colleges want priority when the government starts the regularisation process.
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Last week, Higher Education Minister K. Ponmudi announced that the government had approved of 4,000 sanctioned posts of teachers for government colleges. The appointment for these posts would be through a test by the Teacher’s Recruitment Board, he said, adding: “We will announce (the details) in another 10 days. We plan to conduct a test and the teachers will be selected. The guest lecturers will also participate in the test and will come to the interview during which they will get concessions based on their experience.”
After several decades of promises by the successive governments, the guest lecturers are hoping their work is recognised. A guest lecturer in an aided college in Tiruchi said, “Extra marks should be given for teachers who have been working for a pittance in various colleges for decades.”
V. Thangaraj, president of All UGC Qualified Guest Lecturers Association, said, “We have worked all these days in government colleges, but will have to compete with guest lecturers from private colleges. We want the government to give us 50% internal reservation in regularisation.”
According to him the 5,803 guest lecturers had saved the government exchequer several hundred crores of rupees by working for lower salaries. “We have been paid only ₹20,000 as against the University Grants Commission stipulated ₹50,000 since 2019. In the last 12 years we have saved the government ₹1,500 crore by that yardstick as the salaries have always been lower than the UGC mandate,” he argued.