E-Paper
Expedite ad hoc teachers’ regularisation, says CPI MP after DU lecturer’s suicide
CPI Rajya Sabha member Binoy Viswam urged Union education minister Dharmendra Pradh to initiate the process of regularising ad-hoc teachers at the earliest
Almost a week after a 33-year-old ad hoc teacher of Delhi University’s Hindu College died by suicide after allegedly being sacked from his job, Communist Party of India (CPI) Rajya Sabha member Binoy Viswam on Monday wrote to Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan and urged him to “initiate the process of regularising ad-hoc teachers at the earliest.”
“Looking at the immediate shortage of teachers, Delhi University had approved the engagement of ‘ad-hoc’ teachers for a period of 120 days back in the year 2007. This was done to give breathing time to the University in filling vacancies in sanctioned positions. However, this one-time exception has been misused by the University for over one and a half decades. Instead of advertising permanent positions and filling vacancies, Delhi University kept renewing these 120 days contracts for years,” the CPI leader said in his letter.
Viswam also highlighted how the “hopeless” teachers were paid lesser than the regular teachers and how their job and social security was hindered even though they were on par with the regular teachers in terms of experience. Viswam also alleged in his letter that “political biases over appointment of these new teachers were another cause of their dismay.”
“When the University has finally started the long overdue process of filling vacancies, instead of regularising these teachers or giving preference to them, the University has recruited freshers with no experience into their places which is grave injustice and an insult to their years of service. The severe anxiety caused due to this situation compelled a teacher to end his life. The entire process has become institutional torture for the ad- hoc teachers threatening their livelihoods and survival of their families. This is also adversely affecting the students as the entire pedagogical system remains jeopardised.”
Ad-hoc appointees become teachers in colleges after going through merit-based interviews. They are appointed for durations of up to four months. Within this period selection committees are supposed to be constituted, fresh interviews advertised, and appointments made against temporary or permanent posts.
The issue of absorption of ad-hoc teachers has been ongoing for quite a long and several teachers’ groups have demanded normalisation of the process and retainment of such teachers who have served enough years to prove their merit.The teachers’ bodies have alleged that 465 out of 615 interviewed teachers were displaced in the latest round of interviews.
Senior officials of the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Union education ministry had held a meeting with the DU vice-chancellor on December 5 and decided to adjust norms for shortlisting candidates for interviews of assistant professor appointments to favour the ad hoc professors, by giving greater weightage to their work experience.
