Hike in salaries

The article “Give the professor a raise” (April 16) talks about the need for decent pay for teachers to prevent an exodus to other fields. But salary hikes alone will not help retain the best talent in colleges. We need to recognise and encourage outstanding academic contributions at the national and international level. The prevailing practice of treating professors as bonded labourers in self-financing colleges should end immediately.

Rameeza A. Rasheed,

Chennai

Salaries at college level and beyond are reasonably good in India. But this is true only in government-owned and government-aided colleges. The situation is quite pathetic in unaided private colleges. In the low-paying colleges, the terms of employment are chaotic or simply non-existent. I was employed in such a college for nearly a decade. The terms of employment changed according to the whims of its owner and self-styled “Chairman/Chancellor.” Laboratory conditions are minimal and the affiliated university's so-called “inspection committees” are regularly bribed. High-school laboratories, for instance, are passed off as college laboratories. Corruption is rampant: failed students are promoted, students with zero attendance are given hall-tickets and promoted.

Teaching has never been easy; it will only get tougher. A good, devoted teacher needs space and time to inspire students but with so many restrictions on teachers, good teachers switch professions.

Mohan Das,

Bangalore