Govt colleges to resume soon, but lack of adequate guest faculty

With the government colleges gearing up to resume the academic year with physical classes from November 17, the colleges are having inadequate guest faculty, which is an issue could have been fixed earlier. Nearly, 14,500 guest lectures are not paid their monthly salaries from the time the lockdown commenced in March. Alongside, over as many as 1,000 permanent teachers are still left to be appointed in 428 government colleges for the present academic year.

The guest faculty comprises mainly of language and commerce teachers. The general secretary of Karnataka Government College Teachers Association (KGCTA) H B Narayana said the ratio of guest faculty to the permanent lecturers is 2:1. Also, the state of Karnataka has a count of 7,000 permanent faculty. There are more guest teachers in the B and C zones and there is no answer to when or even whether they will be joining the colleges or when will their remuneration be given.

Many of the guest faculty teachers have switched their jobs in the rising uncertainty, and started, like selling vegetables, said guest teacher Suma (name changed), who works at at government college in Bengaluru, still awaiting for a job and financial security after 8 years.

The guest faculty is paid only for ten months, and post the summer break, their waiting period continues of being appointed for the following academic year, Suma said. “Sometimes, if permanent appointments are made, they take up 16 hours of workload per day per person, while guest lecturers, who receive a fraction of the salary and work eight hours, are taken off the list,” Suma added.

The guest lecturers have not yet been given any confirmation regarding their employment. Further on, the work load of the guest faculty is beyond teaching students, which includes admission protocols as well.

With only six days left for the government colleges to resume, KGCTA secretary Narayana said, the colleges have no clarity on the staff recruitment for handling the additional operations.

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