The Tamil Nadu Government College Teachers Association has demanded that the Higher Education department pay salary dues to guest lecturers immediately.
There are 7,500 guest lecturers currently in government colleges. The State has sanctioned 12,500 teacher posts for government colleges but the institutions are woefully short-staffed as the government has been increasing the number of colleges, said S. Suresh, association general secretary.
At present, there are 171 arts and science colleges under the government’s purview. While the State has been focusing on increasing gross enrolment ratio, which is now 54%, the number of teacher posts has remained unchanged for over 12 years, he said. Twelve years ago there were only 69 colleges, he pointed out.
“The government colleges have played a major role in improving the GER, which is twice that of the all-India figure,” he noted. However, the guest lecturers who have contributed to the growth of the enrolment have been denied equal pay for equal work and are paid ₹25,000 only as consolidated salary, he rued.
“For the past three months, they have not been paid their salaries. The teachers are struggling to make ends meet. They must be paid their salaries immediately. We demand that the government offer permanent positions to 4,000 teachers by resolving the legal hurdles on teacher appointments,” Mr. Suresh said.
